1
UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
TITLE:
COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS DEVELOPED BY ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS;
SECTION “A”, INSTITUTO NACIONAL GENERAL FRANCISCO MORAZAN, SAN
SALVADOR, 2010-2011.
TITULO:
HABILIDADES COMUNICATIVAS DESARROLLADAS POR LOS ESTUDIANTES DE
SEGUNDO AÑO DE BACHILLERATO; SECCION “A”, INSTITUTO NACIONAL
GENERAL FRANCISCO MORAZAN, SAN SALVADOR. 2010-2011.
GRADUATION WORK TO OBTAIN THE B.A. IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
AUTHORS:
ANGEL HERRERA, ROSA EVELYN
BARAHONA DIAZ, HERMINIA ELIZABETH
DATE:
MARCH 2012
2
UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR
Facultad de Educación
AUTORIDADES UNIVERSITARIAS
ING. LUIS MARIO APARICIO GUZMÁN
RECTOR
LICDA. CATALINA RODRÍGUEZ MACHUCA DE MERINO
VICERRECTORA ACADÉMICA
LIC. JORGE ALBERTO ESCOBAR
DECANO FACULTAD DE EDUCACIÓN
5
Acknowledgment
This research is devoted who helped me during the process:
Ø The almighty God for who supplied me everything todo this possible.
Ø My Parents: Luis Alonso and Albania for all their efforts.
Ø My brothers: Alex and Cristian for all their love.
Ø My dear husband: Juan Carlos for his support, patience and love.
Ø My little angel : Elizabeth who gave me strength to continue until the end.
Ø My partner: Evelyn and her family for their support and prays.
Ø My co-workers: Deyci, Esperanza and Frescy for their advices and support.
Ø My Pastors: Luis Nuñez and Edith de Nuñez for their prays.
Ø Our advisor: Lic. Jorge Soriano for his guidance.
Ø Our judges for their advices.
Ø All the people who cares about me and my major whom always wish me
succesful and good things.
Thanks for everything and God bless them.
Herminia Elizabeth Barahona Dìaz
6
This research is devoted who helped me during the process:
Ø The almighty God for gave me the strength, the wisdom and the intelligence
to carry out this project.
Ø My mother: Evelia Herrera, for supporting me every moment and showed
me her unconditional love.
Ø My sister: Martha Elena, Josefina and Juana for their love and unconditional
support.
Ø My friends: Herminia Barahona and Hugo García for encouraged me to
continue and helped me to finish this project.
Ø Our advisor: Lic. Jorge Soriano for his guidance.
Ø Our judges for their advices.
Ø The authorities and professor of Universidadd Pedagógica de El Salvador.
Thanks for everything and God bless them.
Rosa Evelyn Angel Herrera.
7
TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER I CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK……….………………………………………………………I
I. INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................I
1.1 OBJECTIVES .......................................................................................................................... 9
1.1.1 GENERAL OBJECTIVE ...................................................................................................... 13
1.1.2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES .................................................................................................... 13
1.2 BACKGROUND. .................................................................................................................... 14
1.3 JUSTIFICATION .................................................................................................................... 21
1.4 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM. ........................................................................................ 23
1.5 FINDINGS AND LIMITATIONS. ............................................................................................. 25
1.6 SUM UP OF CONCEPTS AND CATEGORIES. ..................................................................... 31
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK............................................................................ 34
2.1 METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL FUNDAMENTATION. ........................................ 34
2.1.1 RECEPTIVE SKILLS .......................................................................................................... 34 2.1.1.1. LISTENING SKILL ..................................................................................................... 34
2.1.1.2 EXTENSIVE LISTENING .......................................................................................... 36 2.1.1.3 INTENSIVE LISTENING ........................................................................................... 36
2.1.1.2. READING SKILL ........................................................................................................ 40 2.1.1.2.1 TEXT AND DISCOURSE ....................................................................................... 41 2.1.1.2.2 RHETORICAL STRUCTURE OF A TEXT .............................................................. 43 2.1.1.2.3 READING THEORY ............................................................................................... 44 2.1.1.2.3.1 READING AS INTERACTION ............................................................................. 45 2.1.1.2.4 TOP- DOWN AND BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING ................................................... 46 2.1.1.2.5 SCHEMA THEORY ................................................................................................ 48 2.1.1.2.5.1 ACTIVATING SCHEMATA THEORY .................................................................. 49 2.1.1.2.6 DIFFERENT READING SKILLS AND WAYS OF DEVELOPING ............................ 50 2.1.1.2.6.1 WORD ATTACK SKILLS ..................................................................................... 50 2.1.1.2.6.2 TEXT ATTACK SKILLS ....................................................................................... 53 2.1.1.2.6.2.1 READING FOR PLAIN SENSE ........................................................................ 54 2.1.1.2.6.2.2 UNDERSTANDING DISCOURSE .................................................................... 57 2.1.1.2.7 INTENSIVE AND EXTENSIVE READING .............................................................. 60 2.1.1.2.8 READING STAGES ............................................................................................... 61
2.1.2 PRODUCTIVE SKILLS .................................................................................................... 61 2.1.2.1. SPEAKING SKILL...................................................................................................... 61
2.1.2.1.1 FUNCTIONS OF SPOKEN LANGUAGE ................................................................ 65 2.1.2.1.2 COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGIES ......................................................................... 66
2.1.2.2. WRITING SKILL ........................................................................................................ 68
8
2.1.2.3. PROFICIENCIY GUIDELINES OF LANGUAGE SKILLS ............................................ 72 2.1.2.4. COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCES .......................................................................... 83
2.2. EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................................................. 86
2.2.1 MONOGRAPH .................................................................................................................... 86
2.2.2 DESCRIPTION OF THE HIGH SCHOOL ............................................................................ 91 2.2.3 DESCRIPTION OF INSTRUMENTS ................................................................................ 94
2.3 METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL RESEARCH FORMULATION............................98 2.3.1 LISTENING SKILL ..................................................................................................... 109 2.3.2 READING SKILL ....................................................................................................... 110 2.3.3 SPEAKING SKILL...................................................................................................... 118 2.3.4 WRITING SKILL ........................................................................................................ 123
2.4 THEORETICAL DEFINITON AND DEVELOPMENT ............................................................ 126
CHAPTER III OPERATIVE FRAMEWORK. ............................................................................... 132
3.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE SUBJECT FOR THE RESEARCH ................................................ 132
3.2 PROCEDURES FOR GATHERING DATA .......................................................................... 133
3.3. SPECIFICATION OF THE TECHNIQUE TO THE DATA ANALYSIS................................... 134 3.3.1 DATA ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................... 136
3.4.CHRONOGRAM .................................................................................................................. 147
3.5 RESOURCES ...................................................................................................................... 150 3.5.1 HUMAN RESOURCES .............................................................................................. 150 3.5.2 LOGISTICAL RESOURCES ...................................................................................... 150
3.6 PRELIMINARY TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE FINAL REPORT ...................................... 151
9
CHAPTER I CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
I. INTRODUCTION This project deals with the communicative skills: oral comprehension (listening),
oral production (speaking), reading comprehension (reading) and writing
production (writing), that students in 2nd year of high school need to acquire and
enhance in order to succeed in English learning. Due to the demand, that English
language has gotten in El Salvador, it is important not only to speak the English
language, but also to know how to communicate effectively by using the such
communicative skills, That is why the Ministry or Education (MINED) decided to
implement the new English Syllabus (2010) so that the students who graduate from
secondary school (Bachillerato) show at least a high intermediate level of
proficiency when they perform in English.
This research presents the objectives that are going to be reach thorough the
development of it, which take into account the communicative skills, the process of
acquiring them, and the outcome level of communicative skills that the students
have at the end of the scholar year. Those communicative skills are classified in to
two main groups: the receptive and the productive skills. The receptive group
consists of the listening and reading skills and the productive group involves the
speaking and the writing skills. In order to be competent performing in such skills,
it is necessary to have developed some micro skills, for instance: Identify
contracted words, discriminate among the distinctive sounds of English, infer
context that is not explicit by using background knowledge, etc., which are the
elements that help to reach the task for communication for different communicative
purposes. Besides that, these micro skills help measure the competence in the
development of the macro skills.
There is one very important point to be taken into in account for the development of
this research, and that is the corresponding English syllabus provided by de
Ministry of Education (MINED) to all English teachers working in this level. A brief
history of the Educative Salvadoran System is also introduced in order to grasp the
10
backgrounds leading to the present reality of the English teaching learning
process, and to understand the recent changes made to overcome some past
deficiencies. The most significant recent change was the implementation of a new
syllabus with the intention of remarking the importance of a closer attention to the
development and enhance of the communicative competences based of course in
a communicative approach. For that reason, both, the previous and the new syllabi
are described and analyzed in this research.
Another important part in this research is the justification; it states the importance
on the communicative skills due to the growing of the globalization phenomenon.
That is why; the MINED was pushed to make changes on the syllabus, according
to the needs’ school. Besides, the students need to develop and acquire the
communicative skills for communicative goals.
In the statement of the problem there are established some questions, which are
going to be answered through the searching, and also some possible causes about
why the communicative skills are not being really developed as expected by the
MINED. As for the communicative competences, it mentions the importance that
those communicative competences have for students, which are established in the
syllabus, with the purpose that they develop them throughout the scholar year.
Concerning to the theory presented in this research, the findings and limitations
emphasize among the authors their different point of views; about the development
of communicative skills, the communicative competences, and the syllabus. But
also these take into in account, the evaluation and the communicative approach;
which are related with this research, because both are part of the new English
syllabus proposed by the MINED.
Within this research, there are varieties of concepts and categories, which help to
grasp the different parts that are set up in it. Those concepts and categories are
established according to the way that those are going to be used.
11
In order to support this research it is necessary to have a methological and
theoretical foundation in which the theory of some authors considered the best
ones because of their contributions to this topic, in this case they are: Jeremy
Harmer, with his book The Practice of English Language Teaching, Neil Maclaren,
Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno, with TEFL in Secondary Education, Douglas
Brown by Teaching by Principals, Christine Nutall with teaching Reading skills in a
foreign Language. In which the different points of view of them about the
development of communicative skills are presented.
Besides the contributions of the authors, something very important is to know
about the place of research for that reason; the monograph of the city where the
school in which this research was developed is located has been included. In this
monograph the most important facts about the city are presented, and they are:
Geographic facts, Historical Data, Demography, Hydrography, Economics and
social structure, according to access to services and indicators of Education
services, divided into Main Private Schools and Main Public Schools.
After the general facts about the place or location of the school where this research
was done, the specific facts about school are described as they are: its name ,the
number of teachers working there, the number of students and the number of
classrooms; besides that, the schedule, its vision and mision and the distribution of
the grades and its sections are described too. Then, after the general information
about school, a description about English subject comes, how many teachers are
teaching English and specifically about the English classes in 2nd year of high
school are developed and how the teacher tries to develop the four communicative
skills.
Moreover, it is necessary to mention about the instruments used in this research in
order to collect the necessary information to give to this research more truthfulness
and in order to reach the objectives previously presented. Those instruments are: a
journal, check list observation, and final achievement test. Each instrument is
described about what it is about, what its goal is, how it contributes to this
12
research and how it was applied, after their description there is a model of every
instrument applied. But all those instruments were not the only aspects used in
order to collect the information, a description of the usage of the English book and
the role that the English syllabus play in the English classes is included too.
Afterwards the application of those instruments there are a basis which is used in
order to compare the theory and the reality founded through this research, and
precisely this part of the research presents that. There is a description of how the
teacher developed in classes the aspects mentioned by the authors quoted, if they
are developed by the teacher.
After that, when theory and reality are compared researchers are able to give their
contribution about this topic and give general opinions about the development of
the communicative skills.
13
1.1 OBJECTIVES
1.1.1 General Objective To analyze through a descriptive and theoretical research the communicative skills
developed by eleventh grade students; section A, at Institute Nacional General
Francisco Morazán, based in the new English syllabus
1.1.2 Specific Objectives 1.1.2.1 To find out the process of acquiring and enhancing of both the macro and
the micro skills for communicating in English among eleventh grade students,
section A, at Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán.
1.1.2.2. To identify the outcome level of the macro and micro skills for
communicating in English among eleventh grade students, at Instituto Nacional
General Francisco Morazán, at the end of the school year, 2010.
14
1.2 BACKGROUND. Brief History of the Instituto Nacional "General Francisco Morazán"
The Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán was set up on February 18th,
1950 by Mister Rubén H. Dimas, while Mr. Dimas was the Minister of Education in
El Salvador. He had the initiative of creating a secondary school exclusively for
girls, such idea sprang in his mind due to the internal conflicts in other secondary
schools attended by boys and girls; conflicts such as lack of moral values,
discipline and others. One of the biggest concerns of Mr. Ruben H, Dimas and his
wife was the amount of girls who got pregnant before even having finished
secondary school (bachillerato).
At the beginning, the very original name of the school was Instituto Central de
Señoritas, and later was changed to Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán.
The school was first located in an old building were the garden Decrolli pre- school
(kinder garden) is now. Later, the school was moved to a new and modern
building. In 1945, the school was moved again to 3ra calle oriente # 415 right,
behind the San Jose catholic church. Later, in 1952 the school was moved again
this time the main reason for moving was the growth of the students’ population
and the new address was 9na calle oriente # 415.
In 1954, the current Minister of Education at that time, Dr. Reinaldo Galindo Pohl,
and the principal of the school, Clementina Valdes Piche, decided to build a new
building for the school on 1ra C. Pte., 23 Av. Nte. # 1250. There, the school has
been located from that time until the present days.
Concerning to the English Classes in the School In an interview with the authorities of the Instituto Nacional General Francisco
Morazán, they stated that they introduced the English Language subject in 1996 as
15
suggested by the Minister of Education syllabi. Since then until nowadays, they
have tried to increase the quality of the English classes in different ways, for
instance:
ü Finding and training English specialists.
ü Acquiring new technology to teach English such as television, computers
and different supporting materials.
ü Supplying the library with updated bibliographic resources (English books),
but the English teachers asks their students to purchase their own English
textbooks for the English classes.
Always looking for a better development of English language in their students, the
authority of the Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán decided to increase
the number of English classes up to six (that meant three additional classes)
because in the year 2007, the MINED gave instructions to all public secondary
schools in El Salvador for adding a new subject to the curricula, that subject was
named Life Guidance (Orientacion para la Vida) which it was used to English
classes. That decision was a great advantage for the students at that time as an
English teacher said during the interview, but suddenly the extra classes were
suspended.
The Implementation of the English Syllabi in the Salvadoran Educative System
The gradual implementation of the new curricular reform in Salvadoran educative
system began in the year 1996, and it was recommended by the Commission of
Development, Science and Education of the MINED. The Ministry of Education
introduced new curriculums for all subjects in all different levels of the Salvadoran
educative system, and obviously the English subject for the eleventh grade was not
the exception.
16
The first versions of English syllabi for 7th and 10th grades were made up in 1995
and they were revised in 1996. The syllabi for 8th, 9th and 11th grades were made
up and approved in 1996 too. During that year the MINED appraised the
implementation of the curricular reform in a representative sample consisted of
several private and public schools nationwide, all this was done with the intention
to find out the teachers and the school principals` opinion concerning the new
syllabi.
Taking into account the data collected during the observation made by the MINED
in the implementation of the curricular reform, a new revision of all English syllabi
was carried out, so that, in 1998 students and English teachers were provided with
the first update versions of the new syllabi, that meant that English teachers could
and had to do the adequacy they considered necessary to achieve the set up
learning objectives.1These new updated syllabi introduced a functional
constructivist approach that meant the English learning process as a foreign
language was proposed as based on a series of activities gradually carried out to
encourage the learners to constant language learning.2
These syllabi were used in public as well in many private schools since 1998 up to
the year 2009. But even this English syllabi was used until that time, the MINED,
through the 2021 plan, turned its attention to a new orientation of the teaching of
English, due to the demands of the globalized world concerning the proficiency of
the English command and for that purpose COMPITE was born in 2004.COMPITE
was a program created with the intention to incentivize the learning of the English
language. During the coming years, the main goal of COMPITE was to set up the
basis for the Salvadoran students could have the chance to master a second
language, English, in order to relate with other people around the world.3
1 MINED- Programa de estudio de ingles, Primero y segundo año de bachillerato de Educación Media. San Salvador, El Salvador, 1998. 2 Ibidem. 3 MINED- Plan Nacional de Educación 2021, Programa Compite. 1ra Ed. San Salvador, El Salvador, C.A. Marzo 2005.p.8.
17
COMPITE had as its main objective to develop the necessary linguistic
competences in the students of elementary school (7th, 8th, and 9th grades
specifically) as well as secondary school (10th and 11th grades) concerning the
command of the English language, such competencies are: reading, listening,
writing and speaking in English. But, besides its main goals COMPITE had other
ones which of course were not less important, and one of them was to improve or
get over the English teachers’ linguistic competencies as well as to update the
techniques and methods these teachers devise in their classes to teach English.
The COMPITE program also readequated the English syllabi for both; elementary
and secondary levels, with the intention of integrating new updated methodologies,
and the contents to be thought with an approach oriented to competencies. It was
since 2004 up to 2008 that all the necessary changes according with the new
orientation of COMPITE program were made up. Consequently, at the beginning of
the current scholar year (2010) the new syllabi were devised.4
Despite the new orientation and the changes made up in this new syllabi (2008),
the old English syllabi (designed and implemented in 1998) was definitely one of
the sources for the designing and implementation of the current version; although,
it is worth standing that this is a functional/notional syllabus embracing the
communicative approach for its development in order to achieve objectives and
language proficiency levels.5
Development of Skills through Different Methods
The communicative skills had been developed through different methods, which
even they had have success in the English learning teaching process, they had not
reached an integral development in the four skills, this means that every method
emphasizes in one or two communicative skills only. As an evidence of this, a brief
4 MINED- Plan Nacional de Educación 2021, Programa Compite. 1ra Ed. San Salvador, El Salvador, C.A. Marzo 2005.p.8. 5 MINED- English Syllabus, Tenth and Eleventh grades, High School, San Salvador, El Salvador,2008.p 5
18
description of the main purpose of the most popular methods is going to be given
below.
Concerning to the audio lingual method it can be said that the “skills are learned
more effectively if oral precedes written, analogy, not analysis”6. It means that this
is oriented only to speaking and listening skills. On the other hand, the Total
Physical Response (TPR) is based in grammar as well as in meaning, through the
development of “imperative drills to elicit physical actions”7 It can be inferred that
this method develop the writing skill only. Another well known method is the
Community Language Learning and it is considered “more than a system of
communication. It involves whole person, culture, educational, developmental
communicative process.”8 It means that the four skills are developed during the
application of this method, according to the student`s needs. In the same way, the
Natural Approach integrates the four skills, even when its main purpose is to
increase vocabulary. This approach was “designed with the objective to give
beginners and intermediate learners basic communicative skills”.9
All of these methods and approaches are not the only ones, but they are the most
applied for teachers in the teaching learning process with the purpose to get very
fast results in their students in the acquisition of a new language, and as it was
mentioned before these methods and approaches did not have the goal of
developing the four communicative skills, but nowadays, the new orientation of the
teaching learning process is to enable students with the development of the four
communicative skills. For this reason, after years developing each skill in a
separated way, the necessity of the integration of the four communicative skills
emerged. Even some argue that the integration of the four skills diminishes the
importance of the rules of listening, speaking, reading, and writing that are unique
to teach separate, the benefit of this integration is more important than whatever
comment. Which is that benefit? When communicative skills are integrated “many
6 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2nd Ed. p. 34 7 Ibidem, p. 34 8 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2nd Ed. p. 34. 9 Ibidem p. 34.
19
aspects of one skill is thought”10 in other words students perceive the relationship
among several skills and they are provided with a great deal of flexibility to
performance in class. Besides that, students have a chance to diversify their efforts
in more meaningful tasks because they do not have limits in their class’
performance and they are model for the real life integration of language skills.
It is evident that in order to do real this integration of the four communicative skills,
it is necessary to look for the suitable method or approach, in this case, the
Communicative Approach (or Communicative Language Teaching) is the way to do
possible this new orientation of the English teaching learning process. This
approach considers the language “as a system for the expression of meaning;
primary function interaction and communication”. It emphasizes the function of the
language in real situations taking into account the learners’ needs. From this point,
it can be inferred that both, the integration of Communicative Skills and the
Communicative Approach have the same goal: Engage learners in communication
performing in a variety of forms.
In order to develop the integration of communicative skills through this method, it is
necessary to create a curriculum, in which one skill is related with the others. It
means that every lesson has the activities that help to develop not only the skill
presented in the class, but also those which are not mention, but they are taken in
the English learning process. An example is presented here: “A lesson in a so
called reading class. Under this new paradigm, might include:
1. A pre- reading discussion of the topic to activate schemata.
2. Listening to a lecture or a series of informative statements about the topic of
a passage to be read.
3. A focus on a certain reading strategy, say, scanning.
10 Ibidem p. 232
20
4. Writing a paraphrase o a section of the reading passage.”11
In this case, through the four points mention before, there are being developed not
only reading skill, but also speaking, listening and writing. With a pre- reading
discussion of the topic, the speaking skill is being developed; in the same way, with
listening to a lecture, students develop the listening skill. On the other hand,
paraphrasing a section of the reading passage in a written form, writing skill is
developed.
According to the MINED, this curriculum has to be notional / functional, because
this kind of curriculum “is one in which the content of the language teaching is a
collection of the functions that are performed when language is used, or of the
notions that the language is used to express.”12 In other words, the notional cares
about the concepts that can be expressed through language, for instance; time,
distance, place, and so on. And the functional cares about the way that students
perform, in real situations the acquired knowledge, for instance; describing,
narrating, greeting.
In sum, those elements mentioned before (the integration of skills, the
communicative approach, and the notional/ functional syllabus) are very important
in order to reach the development of the communicative skills, for that reason, the
MINED take them into account for designing the new English syllabi.
11Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2nd Ed. p. 232 12 MINED- English Syllabus, Tenth and Eleventh grades,High School, San Salvador, El Salvador,2008p.40
21
1.3 JUSTIFICATION
The communicative skills are language skills needed to interact in social situations;
and they are essential tools in order to have good and effective communication
with others.
The necessity of learning the English language has been growing in the last
decades due the globalization phenomenon. This situation has taken El
Salvador to accelerate and invest in the English learning process for
communicative goals with the objective of taking advantage of such globalization.
Because of this, nowadays to learn English as a foreign language is almost a
must in order to have more and better job opportunities and consequently better
living conditions.
Therefore, the MINED set up the English Language teaching from seventh to
eleventh grades as compulsory. This means that students have the opportunity to
learn the language in five years by being taught three classes a week all through
the above mentioned grades.
The Salvadoran Educative history also shows throughout the COMPITE program
that some communicative skills have been improved, modifying the English syllabi
according to the present demands, making some important changes for the
teaching-learning process. The MINED provided these changes in 2004, and this
curriculum was implemented since 2010: The purpose of this curriculum has been
to reinforce the students with the communicative skills in order to give them an
important tool to help them during the learning process.
The historical backgrounds of the communicative skills justify this research
beginning from the reality on the public schools, and the necessity that students
have had during the English learning process in order to use the language for
communicative goals. Besides, this study could confirm if the implementation of
this new program is giving the expected results by the MINED.
22
This research is also important because no other previous research regarding this
issue has been carried out so far. Therefore, it will show a study of the
communicative skills based in the communicative competences acquired by
eleventh grade students at Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán, through
the application or devise of the latest corresponding syllabus provided by the
MINED. And if they achieved the English educative standards as well as the
expected level of English command by the MINED, at the end the current scholar
year, 2010.
The information presented in this project will be for university students of
educational major in English who can find theoretical information about the
development of communicative skills based on competences. Moreover, this
research can also help the Salvadoran educative system in order to improve in a
dynamic way the English teaching-learning process, and it is expected that the final
results of it become of a good contribution for it.
23
1.4 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM.
It is well known that in the mother tongue it is necessary to have an optimums
development of communicative skills in order to be successful in the process of
communication, so in the same way, to develop good communicative skills it is
very important and necessary when somebody is acquiring a new language, in this
case English. For that reason is important to give the answer to some questions:
ü Which are the communicative skills set up in the syllabus of eleventh grade
by the MINED to be reached?
ü Are the communicative skills being developed by the eleventh grade
students in section “A” at Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán
based on the corresponding syllabus?
ü Which communicative skills are being really developed and to what extent
by the eleventh grade students in section “A” of Instituto Nacional General
Francisco Morazán?
Why is it important to give answers to those questions? First of all, because the
MINED through the syllabus intends to enable students to insert themselves in the
society provided with the important and necessary tool as it is English nowadays.
Second of all, because the communicative skills mentioned before are not being
appropriately developed in schools, at least not to the extend set up or demanded
by the MINED. The reasons why these skills are not being achieved could be:
A) That the students are not conscious of the great importance of English in the
labor market nowadays; consequently, they do not care so much about the
English classes.
B) The students` negative attitude toward the English subject in schools,
probably due to bad past experiences fear or embarrassment to express
themselves using the English language.
24
C) Lack of teacher`s training about the way of working with the syllabus.
D) Teachers are only focused in one skill and do not care about the other ones
or give them less importance.
E) Teachers do not apply the necessary method that helps students to develop
the four skills.
Finally, it is considered that due the practice, time, and the way that students have
been receiving English classes, they develop at least one of the four skills required
by the MINED. Taking into account the syllabus proposed by the MINED, the way
to learn English has changed; and instead to learn grammar, the students practice
it in different conversations. Besides that, the syllabus is designed according to the
students’ needs and topics related with their environment, in which they can
develop the communicative competences proposed by the MINED.
The communicative competences are very important when students are acquiring
a new language. Those competences are considered as the knowledge to know
what to say and how to say something properly, in the correct situation and not
only to know the linguistic code. This searching of communicative competences
are required to be reached in Salvadoran’s schools day after day, during the
teaching learning process of English subject; through a syllabus in which is stated
what will be able to do for students at the end of the scholar year.
Now, the task in this search is to give answers to the questions stated at the
beginning, taking into account the theory about the communicative skills, the
syllabus proposed by the MINED, and the facts presented during the observation in
the school (Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán).
25
1.5 FINDINGS AND LIMITATIONS.
With the purpose that Salvadoran schools prepare students able to manage a
second language as it is English, it is necessary to know the different ways in order
to develop the Communicative Skills that allow them to perform in a high level
according to the global requests.
The Communicative Skills are very important, because they help students to have
good communication, and also because they are part of the new syllabus proposed
by the MINED. For those reasons, it has been necessary to consult different
specialized authors referred to the theory that supports this research.
The authors taken for this research are: Douglas Brown, “Teaching by Principles”,
New York, 2001; Jeremy Harmer, “The Practice of English Language Teaching”,
2001; ICFES Magisterio, “Evaluacion por Competencias”, Bogota, 2004; Harold
Madsen, “Techniques in Testing”, New York, 1983; Neil McLaren, Daniel Madrid,
Antonio Bueno, “ TEFL in Secondary Education”, España, 2005. Their theories
increase the knowledge related with the communicative skills, which present the
following findings and limitations.
Development of Skills It is through the development of skills process that it is possible a real acquisition of
language. Jeremy Harmer (2001) has classified the skills into to categories:
Receptive and Productive skills. Receptive skills is about listening and reading;
productive is about writing and speaking. Douglas Brown (2001) thinks “the
human race has fashioned two forms of productive performance” which concerns
about speaking and writing. And also “two forms or receptive performance”13,
listening and reading.
13 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2nd Ed. p. 232
26
Receptive Skills Listening Jeremy Harmer believes that students can improve their listening skills through a
combination of extensive and intensive listening material and procedures.
“Extensive listening usually takes place outside the classroom”14 and in a listening
activity chosen by students. Intensive Listening occurs in the classroom and it can
be developed in different ways: “Reading aloud, story telling, interviews and
conversations.”15
Douglas Brown proposes five different kinds of classroom listening performance:
“receptive, intensive, responsive, selective and extensive”.16 Intensive listening
performance, focus on components because students pay attention in identifying
“grammatical structure, memorize words, contraction and intonation”.17 On the
other hand, extensive listening performance is related to understand the message.
Students are exposed to listening activities in order to take notes and understand
as much as possible what the conversation or talk is about.
Reading In order to develop this skill, Jeremy Harmer states that it is necessary to get
“involved in both extensive and intensive reading”18. Extensive reading is applied
when teacher encourages students to choose themselves what they read, and its
main goal is to make in student grow up the feeling of pleasure when they read.
Intensive reading is designed to develop specific receptive skills, and often the
teacher chooses directly what the students are going to read.
About this skill, Douglas Brown proposes two ways of classroom reading
performance; oral and silent. Oral is focused in reading aloud for the students to
14 Jeremy Harmer- The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p. 228 15 Ibidem, p. 230 16 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2nd Ed. p. 235 17 Ibidem, p 235 18 Jeremy Harmer- The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p. 210
27
develop pronunciation and participation into the classroom. On the contrary, silent
is classified into intensive and extensive reading, where intensive reading is similar
to intensive listening, because it is focused on “the linguistic or semantic details of
passage”.19 But extensive reading “is performed outside the classroom”; this looks
for a general understanding from long texts, for example “books, long articles or
essays, etc.”20
Productive Skills Writing For Jeremy Harmer “there are issues of letter, word, and text formation
manifested in this skill through spelling, layout and punctuation”21. If teacher and
students care about it, a competent writing can be developed.
Spelling is important for the understanding of a written message and for the
reader`s judgment. Layout and punctuation is even a matter of personal styles. It is
necessary to follow the well- established customs in order to make a piece or
writing look awkward to many readers.
In the writing skill, Douglas Brown mentions some classroom writing performance:
“imitative or writing down, intensive or controlled, and self writing.”22Imitative or
writing down is when students listen more than twice a word or phrase and then
they write what they hear. Intensive or controlled writing refer to grammar; it helps
to improve grammar problems in students, to control tense verbs, etc. Self writing
refers to take notes about a class or a lecture and after, they write down like a
summary about the class.
Speaking Jeremy Harmer considers that “the ability to speak fluently assumes not only the
knowledge of language features, but also the ability to process information and
19 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2nd Ed. p. 312 20 Ibidem, p. 313 21 Jeremy Harmer- The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p.255 22 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 2nd Ed. p.344
28
language”,23 in the exact moment. Those language features are necessary
elements for spoken production, and those elements can be mastered in the
English learning process, if the activities developed in the classroom involve to
students in the mastering of these features.
The six classroom speaking performances that Douglas Brown mentions are:
“imitative, intensive, responsive, transactional, interpersonal and extensive”.
Imitative, “learners practice an intonation contour”24 . This is practicing with the
purpose that students “focus on some particular elements of language form”.
Intensive is related with the “practice of phonological or grammatical aspect of
language.”25 Responsive, students answer to the teacher or to students with short
replies. Transactional refers to “exchange specific information”26 in a conversation.
In this, the point is to have a long conversation. Interpersonal is related with social
relationship among students, the purpose is to enjoy the conversation.
Even the object of this research is the Communicative Skills; it is important take
into account the proficiency guidelines besides that, mention about syllabus,
communicative competences and evaluation, because in Salvadoran educative
system those elements are considered important tools that allow to the
Communicative Skills to be developed in the English teaching learning process.
Syllabus Jeremy Harmer in his book “English Language Teaching” says, “The syllabus
concerns with the selection of items to be learnt and the grading of those items into
an appropriate sequence”,27 helping and ordering the steps to follow in order to do
the learning process easy.
23 Jeremy Harmer- The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p.269 24 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2nd Ed. p. 271 25 Ibidem, p.273 26 Ibidem, p. 273 27 Jeremy Harmer- The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p. 295
29
According to Neil McLaren, Daniel Madrid y Antonio Bueno (2005), in their
book, “TEFL in Secondary Education”, defined “syllabus as the selection and
organization of language content”,28 which refers to the group of topics that the
syllabus is going to have. In other words, the syllabus is concerned with what is
going to be taught. Competences In the book “Evaluacion por Competencias” coming from ICFES Magisterio (2004), competence is considered as “the art of knowing what to do in a context,”29
where students show their abilities to understand the reality in which they interact
using their knowledge acquired previously and their ability to solve problems.
According to Neil McLaren Daniel Madrid y Antonio Bueno in their book “TEFL
in secondary Education” making a relation with the language the definition of
competence was changed by communicative competence, in which the person
knows “when and when not speak, what to talk about with whom, when, where and
in what manner.”30
Communicative Competences In the ICFES Magisterio, state that the “communicative competence is dynamic
and not static”31 and it applies to the oral and written language and it is relatively
not absolute, and depends on the cooperation of the participants.
Neil McLaren, Daniel Madrid y Antonio Bueno, states that the communicative
competence “embraces the knowledge of the formal system of a language and the
use or the systems in communication together”.32
28 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. P.248 29 Icfes Magisterio- Evaluación por competencias- Lenguaje Idioma Extranjero Inglés. Evolución de las Pruebas de estado, Colombia, Bogotá, 2004.20th Ed. p. 133. 30 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. P.472 31 Icfes Magisterio- Evaluación por competencias- Lenguaje Idioma Extranjero Inglés. Evolución de las Pruebas de estado ,Colombia, Bogotá, 2004.20th Ed. p. 134 32 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. P.472
30
According to Douglas Brown, The communicative competence must be
developed inside the classroom, those competences are: “grammatical, discourse,
functional, sociolinguistic, and strategic components”33 of the class.
Those components concern about language their productive and receptive skills.
The reception and production of the English language help students to develop
skills in order to improve their learning process with the communicative approach in
which the teacher only guides the students and they are encourage to construct
their own meaning through linguistic interaction with others.
Evaluation
Harold Madsen (1983) in his book “Techniques in Testing” says that “good
evaluation helps measure students’ skills more accurately”34. It means that
evaluation is not oriented to find out students mistakes, but it is oriented to help
students to improve in their development of skills.
Neil McLaren, Daniel Madrid y Antonio Bueno in his book “TEFL in Secondary
Education” say, “the specific method of evaluation will relate to what exactly a
teacher or an examiner would like to assess”35 and it depends on the age and level
of the students. It means that the evaluation has to take into account only the most
important aspects for students and teachers.
33 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2nd Ed. p. 68. 34 Harold S. Madsen- Techniques in Testing- Oxford University Press, New York, 1983. P. 178 35Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. P.225
31
1.6 SUM UP OF CONCEPTS AND CATEGORIES. The goal of learning English language is the ability of communication.
Communication is “a process of reaching mutual understanding in which
participants not only exchange information, but also create and share meaning”36.
To do this possible it is necessary that the students develop skills. Skill is
“something that requires training and experience to do well”37. In the English
Language there are four skills, which are classified in receptive and productive.
Receptive skills are “the ways in which people extract meaning from the
discourse they see or hear”38 and they concern about listening and reading.
Listening is “to interpret oral messages effectively in diverse communicative
contexts”39. Reading is “to understand general and specific information from
written texts”40. Productive skills are “the ways in which people produce spoken
and written messages”41 in the target language. They are about speaking and
writing. Speaking is “the capacity of communicating orally making use of
grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competencies”42. Writing is
“to write general and specific texts to express ideas, emotions and thoughts with
diverse communicative purposes”43. The four skills mentioned, have been taken
into account in order to be developed by students during the English learning
process through the English syllabus. Syllabus is “a summary or list of the main
topics of a course of study”44. The new Salvadoran English syllabus is
notional/functional syllabus which “the content of the language teaching is a
collection of the functions that are performed when language is used, or of the
notions that the language is used to express”45. During the development of the
English syllabus it is necessary to take some evaluations from the students.
36 Microsoft Encarta, Premium dictionary, 2007. 37 Ibidem. 38 Jeremy Harmer- The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p. 199 39 MINED- English Syllabus, Tenth and Eleventh grades, High School, San Salvador, El Salvador,2008p.13 40Ibidem, p.13. 41Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p. 246 42MINED- English Syllabus, Tenth and Eleventh grades, High School, San Salvador, El Salvador,2008p.13 43 Microsoft Encarta, Premium dictionary, 2007. 44 Jeremy Harmer- The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p. 295. 45 MINED- English Syllabus, Tenth and Eleventh grades, High School, San Salvador, El Salvador,2008p.40
32
Evaluation is “a systematic determination of merit, worth, and significance of
something or someone, using criteria against a set of standards”46.
A Competence is “the knowledge of a language that enables somebody to speak
and understand”47. The communicative approach considers different areas of
competences. Grammatical Competence refers to “the degree up to which the
language user has mastered the linguistic code”48 This competence gives the
opportunity to communicate using coherent structure. Sociolinguistic Competence addresses “the extent to which grammatical forms can be used or
understood appropriately in various contexts to convey specific communicative
functions”49. When students develop this competence they take into account the
context in which communication is being developed. Communicative competence refers to “the learner’s ability to use vocabulary and grammatical
rules as well as the ability to form correct utterances and use them appropriately
according to the context”50. Sociocultural Competence refers to “social aspects of
the people speaking a particular language as shown in cultural manifestations
related with the country and their own lives”51. Discourse competence “involves
the ability to combine ideas to achieve cohesion in form and coherence in
thought”52. Each competence achieved becomes in an outcome. Outcome is “an
expected or likely final state, achievement or result”53. Achievement is
“something that somebody has succeeded in doing, usually with effort”54, which is
measured thorough the assessment .Assessment is “a method of evaluating
student performance and attainment”55, well known as a test. Test is “a series of
questions, problems or practical task to gauge somebody`s knowledge, ability, or
46 Microsoft Encarta, Premium dictionary, 2007. 47Ibidem, p.40 48 Ibidem, p. 13 49Ibidem, p. 13 50 Ibidem, p.40 51 Neil McLaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p.474. 52 MINED, English Syllabus, Tenth and Eleventh grades, High School, San Salvador, El Salvador,2008p.40 53 Microsoft Encarta, Premium dictionary, 2007. 54 Ibedem. 55 Microsoft Encarta, Premium dictionary, 2007.
33
experience”56. Those tests are classified into three: Diagnostic Test is a “test
administer to students to identify student`s strengths or weaknesses”57. Progress Achievement Test refers “to the measure of the progress that students are
making”58. Final Achievement Tests are “tests administrated at the end of a
course of study”59.
There are other concepts and categories that are necessary to present in this
research, such as related with reading skill that helps to develop it effectively:
Word attack skill; which is focused in recognize the exact meaning of words, and
the Text attack skill; which is focused in understand the text in a general way,
using the context of the sentence.
56Ibedem. 57 MINED- English Syllabus, Tenth and Eleventh grades, High School, San Salvador, El Salvador,2008p.13 58 Ibidem, p. 13 59 Ibidem. P. 13.
34
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL FUNDAMENTATION.
It can be said the choice of language may depend upon the channel of
communication, if it examines this concept more fully it can identify certain
language skills that native speakers and competent language users posses, literate
people who use language have a number of different abilities, they are able to
speak on the telephone, write letters, listen to the radio or read books, in other
words, they possess the four basic language skills of speaking, writing, listening
and reading. But, those skills are divided in two groups; the receptive skills,
listening and reading, and the productive skills, speaking and writing.
2.1.1 RECEPTIVE SKILLS
2.1.1.1. Listening Skill The importance of listening in Language learning can hardly be overestimated and
it has not always drawn the attention of educators to extend that. People have the
tendency to think that the managing of speaking skill is the major index of language
proficiency but they do not realize that if they do not understand when somebody
interacts with others, to speak it is not enough “listening clearly plays a key role in
all human relationships”.60
Through a variety of research studies that showed evidence of input in second
language acquisition, the significance of comprehensible input has been stressed.
Subsequent pedagogical research on listening comprehension made significant
refinements in the process of listening, and teachers should consider some specific
questions about listening comprehension:
60 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2nd Ed. p. 247
35
1. “What are listeners doing when they listen?
2. What factors affect good listening?
3. What are the characteristics of “real-life” listening?
4. What are the many things listeners listen for?
5. What are some principles for designing listening techniques?
6. How can listening techniques be interactive?
7. What are some common techniques for teaching listening?”61
All these questions are necessaries in order to create in the student significant
learning of listening. Answering these questions could help to the teacher for
creating of a good atmosphere of listening.
Listening is consider as an “interactive process”62 that starts with the receiving of
sound waves through the ear and transmit nerve impulses to the brain, then, the
brain acts on the impulses, bringing to bear a number of different cognitive and
effective mechanism. Through this interactive process there are considered the
following points that are done in microseconds in the brain when listening
comprehension is being activated:
1. “The hearer processes “raw speech” and holds an “image” of it in short-term
memory
2. The hearer determines the type of speech event being processed and then
appropriately “colors” the interpretation of perceived message
3. The learner infers the objectives of the speaker through consideration of the
type of speech event, the context, and the content
4. The hearer recalls background or schemata relevant to the particular
context and subject matter
5. The hearer assigns a literal meaning to the utterance.
61 Ibidem p. 248 62 Ibidem p. 249
36
6. The hearer determines whether information should be retained in short-term
or long-term memory”63
After activating this interactive process in students it is important to use a main
component of listening activities as it is the combination of extensive an intensive
listening. “Listening of both kinds is especially important since it provides the
perfect opportunity to hear voices other than the teacher’s, enables students to
acquire good speaking habits as a result of the spoken English they absorb and
helps to improve their pronunciation”64
2.1.1.2 Extensive Listening This kind of listening helps student to improve in their listening performance and
also can have a dramatic effect on student’s language learning. In extensive
listening “teacher encourages students to choose for themselves what they listen
to and to do so for pleasure and general language improvement”65. It is important
that teacher advises students not to worry if they do not understand everything
when they start practicing extensive listening, because the principle objective of
this is “to adopt a relaxed posture and ‘lie down and doodle”66 while they listen. The
more they practice with extensive listening the more they will be comfortable when
they listen.
2.1.1.3 Intensive Listening This kind of listening is performed inside the classroom and it has specific
purposes for the teacher. Teacher manages this kind of listening and there are
many forms to develop it:
2.1.1.3.1 Intensive listening using audio This kind of intensive listening enables students to recognize a variety of situations
and voices through the characters of the audio material, but the teacher has to
consider some aspects when he/she is going to use audio material:
63 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2nd Ed. p. 249 64 Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p. 303 65 Ibidem 66 ibidem
37
1. The size of the classroom
2. The audibility of audio material
3. The level performed in the audio material.
Those aspects are very important because it depend on them if intensive listening
using audio material has successful or failed results.
2.1.1.3.2 Intensive listening live listening This listening is a way of encouraging students to put in practice the listening skill
in real situations. “It allows students to practice listening in face to face
interactions”. Besides that, students can adequate the level of speed and
vocabulary they use and in this way they feel more comfortable. Live listening
offers a variety of activities in which listening skill is developed:
a. Reading aloud
This activity has to be performed specially for teacher or an invited colleague
because it has to be “an enjoyable activity, when done with conviction a style”67
in order to catch the attention of students.
b. Story telling
When story telling is performed the listening comprehension of students can be
measured by asking them to retell the story, “retelling stories is a powerful way
of increasing language competence”68
c. Interviews
In this activity students are motivated to create their own questions, asking
about what they want or what they are interested about.
67 Jere.my Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman, England, 2001, p. 307 68 Ibidem p. 307
38
d. Conversations
Students have the chance to watch the interaction as well as to listen to it. For
all activities of live listening it is important to take into account that sometimes it
is necessary to invite somebody else to do the activity more interesting for
students.
Other important components found in the interactive process of listening are:
The bottom up process and the top down process, those processes are
important tools in order to be successful in listening student performance.
e. Bottom up process
“It is essentially a linguistic process in which we try to make sense of acoustic
signals by using our knowledge of language”69 In this case students have to:
• Attribute the correct sense to the word
• Recognize a phonetic variation of a word
• Know the words in spoken vocabulary
• Be able to segment the word out of a piece of connected speech.
Students have to put in practice their knowledge about the language “Processing
acoustic signals at a lower linguistic level”70
f. Top down process
This is generally referred to as “schematic knowledge”71, that is a collection of each
individual’s life experiences and these experiences are themselves organized into
69 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. P.285 70 Ibidem p. 286 71 Ibidem p..287
39
different categories: “general world knowledge, sociocultural knowledge, topic
knowledge, and genre knowledge”72.
Why the schematic knowledge can influence in the process of listening
comprehension? Because it provides the basis for understanding or
misunderstanding in listening encounters, that phenomenon is possible because of
the different concepts and definitions derived from the schematic knowledge.
Even the schematic knowledge will not always supply the listener with the
information which will allow a successful interpretation on top down listening
strategies may well aid comprehension in certain situations. “Top down processing
may be used as a strategy at lower proficiency levels, but one which is gradually
removed and calibrated according to the requirements of the situation.”73It is the
interaction between these two knowledge sources (bottom up and top down) which
makes listening, even at a cognitive level, an active process, “comprehension is,
thus, arrived at by matching information from both bottom up ant top down
processing sources until reasonable interpretation is found”74
Listening can be divided in three stages: pre listening, listening and post listening.
Pre listening “prepare students for what they are going to hear, just as we are
usually prepared in real life”75 it means that in classroom all important vocabulary is
thought in order to facilitate comprehension.
Listening, in this stage extensive and intensive listening are contemplated, working
with those listening activities listeners are allowed to develop their comprehension
and are able to give specific information about what they hear while they are
listening recorded material besides that they put in practice the vocabulary learned
in pre listening stage. If listeners really understand what they hear, they could do
the following actions:
72 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. P.287 73 Ibidem p.288 74 Ibidem p.285 75 Ibidem p.293
40
1. Listener responds physically.
2. Listener selects from alternatives such as pictures objects, texts or actions.
3. Listener transforms the message.
4. Listener answers questions about the listening.
5. Listener takes notes or makes an outline.
6. Listener goes beyond the listening by continuing the story o solving a
problem.
7. Listener simply repeats the message.
8. Listener performs a similar task.
9. Listener is an active participant in a face to face conversation.
Finally, the listeners should be exposed to spontaneous speech as well as
textbooks recordings and they are able to achieve some micro skills, which help
them to improve their listening comprehension, those micro skills are:
• “Discriminate among the distinctive sounds of English.
• Retain chunks of languages of different lengths in short- term memory.
• Recognize reduced forms of words.
• Recognize that a particular meaning may be expressed in different grammatical forms.
• Process speech containing pauses, errors, corrections, and other performance variables.
• Recognize cohesive devices in spoken discourse.
• Distinguish between literal and implied meaning.76
2.1.1.2. Reading Skill This receptive skill is one of the four communicative skills that students need to
develop and enhance in order to interact with others. Perhaps, because they need
76 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2nd Ed. p. 256
41
to inform, share or communicate something to someone. “Reading is an active skill
considered to be essential in the development of literacy”77, in which the reader,
the writer, and the text contribute to this process.
When someone is reading a text, he/she does it with different purposes in different
ways, because there is a variety of reasons for reading; for instance, read a
telephone directory, a poem, a map, a diagram or a book. In which everything has
to be read in different ways that influences the students for the purpose for reading.
That is why it is necessary to explain two very important aspects as are text and
discourse.
2.1.1.2.1 Text and Discourse Due to the relation between writer and reader in order to make a text, there is a
process in which the writer needs to be sure about what he is writing and also how
the text is organized. The writer has to be clear if the text is going to begin from
general to specific or the other way around. Besides, the writer has to take into
account the level of the reader related with the selection of words that he /she
uses. The purpose of a writer must be to make easy the reading of the text, to
transmit the message as clearly as possible and present an elegant and accurate
text. Those elements are known by discourse that is “the way the meanings in the
text are organized to convey the message.”78
It is well known that a single sentence has different kinds of meanings, which
sometimes must be distinguished and they could be: “conceptual, propositional,
contextual, and pragmatic”79. The conceptual meaning refers to the very meaning
of a word that can be found in any level as a whole book or a simple morpheme.
Some of them can be simple, some complex, but this conceptual meaning is the
base for other kinds of linguistic meanings, because the meaning of a word is the
most important part of the reading. The propositional meaning is about the
77 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. P. 349 78 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 20 79 Ibidem.
42
meaning of a sentence “also know as signification or plain sense”80, in which the
meaning of a word is not so important, because there are other words that help to
make another meaning as sentence, where it is necessary to understand the
context. The contextual meaning also known as “force or functional value”81, refers
to the connection between sentences that help to organize the writer`s thoughts
with the purpose to get an effective reading. The pragmatic meaning refers to the
interaction between writer and reader through the writing, where the feelings,
attitudes are set down on the text, in order to be understood by the reader with the
same intentions or feelings.
In order to understand better the four kind of meaning it is presented the next
example:
You should not expel my son just because he has failed. Examination
results can be misleading.
Conceptual meaning: simple (son), complex (should) and plurality (results).
Propositional meaning: In this sentence we can deny, question or doubt the
sentence: Examination result are misleading.
Contextual meaning: The preposition, examination results can be misleading
has the force or an explanation or justification of the claim that expulsion
would be wrong.
Pragmatic meaning: Suppose a mother utters this to the teacher who is
proposing to expel her son and if the teacher responded only to the
propositional meaning of the second sentence” examination result can be
misleading”, he might reply how true! But the mother clearly intends to
protest.
80 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 14 81 Ibidem,
43
When the students had understood the kind of sentences that they have in their
reading and also they are done the connection with the writer`s thoughts, it
become easy to understand the coherence and cohesion on the text. It can be
said, that a number of sentences make up a text. But this is not completely true,
until those sentences have been organized and structured coherently in order to
transmit a message. “Coherence depends on the value”82, this means that
depends from the context in which the sentences are placed and also the
arrangement of the sentences. Cohesion refers to the linguistic connections
between sentences, known as cohesive devices that help to make a clear meaning
to the sentences using discourse markers like: however, and, thus, although, and
so on.
2.1.1.2.2 Rhetorical Structure of a Text “The complex network of relationship and the way the underlying ideas are
organized within a text is known as Rhetorical structure.”83There are three
important things that make up the rhetorical structure: First of all, the topic of a text,
coherence is necessary on a sentence, because the topic depends on the
sequence and coherence on these sentences. Second of all, the writer`s purpose
in writing; the writer has to have in mind what the purpose of his/her text is for the
reader, maybe to inform, persuade or convince, taking into account the level of the
reader. Finally, there is the audience, regarding this it was mentioned before that
the level of the reader has to be taken into account as well as the previous
knowledge that they have about the topic.
It can be said that the rhetorical structure of a text helps to a good organization
with in the sentences in which is important that the writer always selects and
arranges his ideas and the words used to express them. Generally, sentences
begin with the topic or theme and after the information needed about it, this is
called “comment or rheme”84. When the writer and the reader are in agreement
82 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 25 83 Ibidem p 26 84 ibidem, p. 27
44
about any ideas, the reader has to pay more attention to the new information that
the writer is giving to help the progression of the reader`s thoughts. A good writer
should always make every sentence have the connection with the previous and the
next sentence with the purpose to transmit clear ideas about the topic.
A good connection between the previous and the next sentence let a good
organization sequence on sentences, that let to the writer forms a paragraph in
which one sentence “sum up the main idea of a paragraph”85 and this is known as
a topic sentence. When the reader recognizes the organization of a paragraph, he
can also identify supporting details, main topics and main ideas of a paragraph.
Besides that, the reader can identify how the paragraph is organized, for instance,
a sequence of event, from general to specific, of from specific to general, cause
and effects and so on.
2.1.1.2.3 Reading Theory Readers have to adapt to new implementations when they want to learn another
language, because they are accustomed to read in their native language. Many
aspects change during the learning of a second language, and among them we
can mention orthography, vocabulary, syntax and so on. Therefore, to make a
change it is difficult for the most readers, and it is necessary to accept several
factors that differentiate foreign language readers (L2 readers) from native
language readers (L1 readers).
1. L2 readers are already literate in the L1 that they use daily simultaneously
with the target language.
2. Different L1 orthographies and literacy practices affect L2 reading abilities
and strategies. These L2 differences constrain the ability to generalize
theoretical issues and research findings in either the L1 or L2 across
learners.
3. The role that L1 literacy plays, affect in different ways according to whether
the L2 reader is an immigrant engaged in filling out forms, a foreign students 85 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 28
45
in a L2 class reading an assigned text, or a secondary, or tertiary-level
student in a foreign language contexts.86
“The purpose of reading is to get meaning from a text”87, either for learning the
language or for getting an important message. During this process there are terms
that are important to explain. Firstly there is a writer, who has in mind the message
(idea, fact, feeling, etc.)That he/ she wants to share thorough a group of words,
where the idea is encoded. Secondly, there is a reader who needs to read the
message and understand it, where this message is decoded and the
communication is achieved. But this achievement depends of the guarantee that
the message had been understood, now that, the text can be easy for one readers
but difficult for other ones.
Due to the difficulties that reader has during the process of reading. He “is actively
involved and often has to work to get the meaning out”88. Before this process, the
reader seems to be a passive reader, because, he is reading the test looking for a
message only. But when this process is activated, the reader is an active reader.
Although “in traditional approach to reading, the reader has considered to be
passive, now that listening and reading were described a passive skills”89. But
more than active or passive, reading is defined as interactive.
2.1.1.2.3.1 Reading as Interaction It is necessary that the readers perform a number of simultaneous tasks during the
process to understand written texts which are stated in the “following:
1. Decode (Reader and writer are using the same code of language).
2. Interpret ( that the writer has a message)
3. Understand ( the writer wants the reader to understand the message )”90
86 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 352 87 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 4 88 Ibidem p. 10 89 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 353 90 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 11
46
That is why reading is considered as interaction because in the first task (decode)
the message is recognized by written signs whether the writer and reader have to
be interested in order to use the same language according to their levels, the
second task (interpret) works only for the reader because he/she has to make the
effort in order to interpret the message. But not only to interpret, also to understand
what the writer wants to share.
2.1.1.2.4 Top- Down and Bottom-up Processing In the process of reading, the reader has to be careful about what he/she is
reading and the way that he/she reads the text. This way of reading depends on
the knowledge that he/she has about the vocabulary, phrases and sentences that
are used in the text and also the knowledge about the topic. In order to understand
better this, the bottom-up and the top-down processing are explained like this:
“These are complementary ways of processing a text. Both of them are used when
someone is reading and sometimes one predominates, sometimes the other, but
both are needed and also this can be adopted as conscious strategies by a reader
approaching a difficult text”91.
“In bottom-up processing (data driven) the reader builds up a meaning from the
black marks on the page, recognizing letters and words, working out sentences
structure”92. This can be oriented to beginner readers in order to increase their
vocabulary, to know grammatical structure, and so on. This can happen when the
writer`s point of view is very different from the reader`s, and also when some
readers have an inadequate knowledge about the reading.
It is important to put in practice the bottom-up processing, because the reader has
a clear idea about the reading, but it is considered necessary to take into account
the top-down processing now that both, the bottom-up and the top down are
complementary during the process of reading.
91 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 16 92 Ibidem p. 17
47
“In top-down processing (concept driven) the text is sampled and predictions are
made on the basis of the reader´s prior syntactic and semantic knowledge”93. It
means that here the readers use their background knowledge about the topic, and
they see the overall purpose of the text. The readers try to interpret the message in
a general form.
While bottom-up processing refers to word recognitions, sound, and spelling; top-
down processing refers to predictions, inferences of a text, therefore, both are
important during the process of reading, it means that the process “occurs
simultaneously while reading”94.Reading is the result of the interaction between the
reader and the text, and that comprehension is achieved through the simultaneous
interface of bottom up and top down processing. In practice it can say that during
the reading process, a reader continually changes from one process to another,
taking into account a top down in order to predict the probable meaning, then, to
the bottom –up in order to check whether that is really what the writer says. “The
following features describe both processes briefly:
Bottom-up:
� These approaches view reading as a series of stages that proceed in a fixed
order from sensory input to comprehension.
� Processing is linear and data-driven.
� Linguistic information is processed beginning with the smallest units of
meaning and ending with larger units.
Top-down:
� These approaches view reading as a continuous process of interpretation
with changing hypotheses about the incoming information.
93 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 353 94 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 354
48
� Processing is non-linear and comprehension involves the reader`s
contribution of background knowledge.
� The incoming information is processed on the basis of the reader`s
expectations, previous knowledge and what has already been processed.”95
Summing up this is an interactive process, because here it puts in practice the
previous knowledge of the reader either about the language or world, which
contribute to the reading comprehension. “This has become known as Interactive
reading”96.
2.1.1.2.5 Schema Theory The previous knowledge about whatever topic is a very important tool that can be
used during the process of learning. “The knowledge organized and stored in the
reader`s mind is called schema or mental mode”97. This knowledge helps the
reader have a successful reading. It is considered as a mental structure because
the knowledge is inside the mind. Also it “is a structure because it is organized”98
during the process of reading, and this helps the readers interpret texts.
Schemata can be classified in three different types:
� Linguistic schemata: Background knowledge of grammar, vocabulary,
spoken and written form of language, etc.
� Content schemata: Background knowledge of the world and the subject
matter of the text.
� Formal schemata: Background knowledge or rhetorical organizational
structures of texts.”99
95 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 354 96 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p.17 97 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 356 98 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 7 99 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 356
49
Regarding the linguistic schemata, it is important that readers take into account the
level that they have in order to read something; and if they know that their linguistic
schema is lacking, they must increase as soon as possible in order to be able with
whatever reading that they want. The content schemata helps students who want
to increase their knowledge in a specific discipline. But also this “schemata may
not be culturally accessible if that schema is culturally specific”100. The content
schema includes what the readers know about people, the world, culture and the
universe. The formal schemata refers to the “knowledge about discourse
structure”101 it means the way the reading is organized.
2.1.1.2.5.1 Activating Schemata Theory As it was mentioned before, the schema is a previous knowledge about a topic;
there are some points that help active this schema. First of all, the presupposition,
which refers to the previous knowledge that a person has about the topic, where
the own experience has been taken into account and those experiences are
shared with the writer. The vocabulary used in those texts can be technical cultural
or common and the meaning of a word depends on it, and also on the context
where the word is used. Second of all, the prediction also activates schemata,
because during the process of reading the readers associate the previous
knowledge of the topic and he/she can interpret the text easily or make sense of
sentences.
In conclusion, the schema is a very important part during the process of reading,
because it depends of the background knowledge either vocabulary, world or
discourse structure, that helps the understanding of the text. But also it is important
to increase the schema in whatever area even though this is not related with the
area in interest.
100 Ibidem. p. 356 101 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 .2nd Ed. p. 300
50
2.1.1.2.6 Different Reading Skills and ways of Developing It is important to mention that whatever thing that someone wants to improve is
through the practice in the area in which they need it. In this case in order to
improve reading skill, the reader has to practice as much as possible to reach a
good comprehension of the text. “It is convenient to assume that readers use
different skills to make sense of different features of a text”102. Therefore individual
skills have to work together with the other skills.
One of the problems that students face when they are reading is the vocabulary for
which they ask what the word means either in a dictionary or an informant. That is
why students need a range of strategies to deal with the text, which are named
skills. Those skills are divided into two groups, the first one is word attack skills and
the second one is text attack skills.
2.1.1.2.6.1 Word Attack Skills Many students are accustomed to use the dictionary when they are reading, in
order to understand the text better, but this situation provokes the interruption of
thoughts. Therefore it is so necessary to teach students how to ignore difficult
words that do not let them comprehend the whole text, although this sounds
something wrong it can help them to: “recognize that they do not understand,
locate the sources of difficulty, and develop strategies for coping with the
difficulty.”103
“One of the most useful word attack skills is the ability to see structural information
to assign meaning to a word. Two kinds of information are relevant: The
grammatical function of the word and the morphology of the word.”104 These kinds
of information help the readers recognize the grammatical function of a word in
order to understand the meaning of a sentence, and also comprehend how a word
can work using other letters that change the meaning and the grammatical form.
102Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 41 103 Ibidem p. 64 104 Ibidem p. 69
51
“Most readers beyond the elementary level can identify grammatical categories
even though they cannot explain how they do it.”105 This situation almost always
occurs when the readers start asking questions about the word that they are
working in. In this case is so important to know the grammatical categories (noun,
adjective, articles, conjunction, etc.) with the objectives that they can identify whole
sentences with its parts of the speech.
A useful exercise that helps develop this skill is through the change of the word in
the grammatical categories, considering the context of the sentence, with the same
function. “It ensures that inappropriate meaning can be refused, and when an
appropriate meaning is established it can be slotted straight into its place”106
Morphology is “the study of how words are formed in a language.”107 The English
language is not the exception, and in this language it concerns about affixes and
compound words that help to get the real meaning of a sentence. But these words
always have a root, and it helps to know the kind of affix that it can have for a
different meaning. One way that helps to attack skills is through exercises that let
to the reader put in practice the use of affixes:
1. “Supply an affix (e.g. UN-) and a number of bases (e.g. happy, slow, and
tidy). Task: Indicate or find out in a dictionary which of the bases can take
the affix.
2. Supply a base (e.g. sharp) and several affixes (e.g. UN- ,-LY,-EN, - MENT, -
NESS). Task: Indicate or find out which of the affixes the base can take.
3. Supply a list of affixes of similar function (e.g. the adjective-forming suffixes
– FUL, - OUS,-Y, -ISH) and a list of bases. Task: indicate/find out which
base words take which affixes, and if more than one I possible, what
variations in meaning are involved (e.g. manful, mannish, and manly).
105 Ibidem p. 69 106 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 70 107 Macmillan English Dictionary p. 910
52
4. Supply an incomplete table of forms consisting of base words with various
affixes.
5. Supply sentences containing words of a particular form, e.g. verbs. Task:
rewrite sentences in a specified way entailing the use of a different form on
the given word( e.g. nouns instead of verbs)”108
In addition, readers need to know the roots depending on their field of study, and
some of them cannot stand alone. When they are aware about that, it will be easy
to understand the sentence without a dictionary or an informant.
The other thing that readers need to understand is “compound words, those words
formed by combining two normally independent words, such as software,
gunsmith, painstaking, secondhand, spooned-feed, dry-clean.”109 Sometimes those
compound words tend to confuse the readers and they cannot understand the
sentence, but it is important to mention that in one language it can be permissible
and maybe impossible in another, depending on the patterns of the language.
Most of the words used by a person while he/she is reading, writing, speaking, or
listening, were not looked up in a dictionary, on the contrary, they can be learned
using of the language with other persons. It means that words are learned context.
They infer the meaning of a word; depending of the situation that is happening in
that moment. Although the process of inferring meaning from context is gradual, it
helps the reader understand some words as well as he/he is using the word. “In
real life reading inference may not be so straightforward, and not all readers are
good at it, but it can certainly be developed by training.”110
Learning how to infer can be enjoyable, because readers can use their intelligence.
It let them have a good comprehension of a text. Depending on the level of the
students, they can do the following exercises:
108 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 71. 109 Ibidem p. 71 110 Ibidem p. 72
53
1. “Using sentences with nonsense words.”111 It helps the reader look the
correct word, using the words that are in the context.
2. “Complete a sentence with a range of words.”112 Using the context they can
give an answer although they know that there are more ranges of words that
can be used, but they choose the best one. This activity requires making
use of schemata.
Also recipes for exercises help to attack word skill, because it refers to certain
nonsense word that has to be changed by real words and it is possible to do the
following:
1. “Supply one or more short texts in which a repeated key word is replaced by
a nonsense word.
2. Supply texts including on unfamiliar key word”113
For all this process of inferring from context it is important to take into account the
vocabulary that the reading has, it has to be at the level of the reader, with the
purpose that there are no troubles during the reading.
2.1.1.2.6.2 Text Attack Skills As it was mentioned before, there are two processes that a reader can use while
he/she is reading, and they are known as: Top-down and bottom-up processing.
With the objective to read for a plain sense the bottom-up strategies are needed,
and for understating discourse the top-down strategies are. That means that skills
are divided into two groups, some for plain sense and some for understanding
discourse. Both have the intention to attack text in order to understand the reading.
The first group is reading for plain sense in which bottom-up strategies are
included which are: understanding syntax, recognizing and interpreting cohesive
devices, and interpreting discourse markers. The second group is understanding 111 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 73 112 Ibidem p. 73 113 Ibidem p. 75
54
discourse in which top- down strategies are included which are: Recognizing
functional value, recognizing text organization, recognizing the presuppositions
underlying the text, recognizing implications and making inferences, and prediction.
2.1.1.2.6.2.1 Reading for Plain Sense This section refers to understanding the text through the comprehension of syntax;
it means that the reading requires grammatical skills.
Text Attack skill 1: Understanding syntax
Most of readings almost always tend to have long sentences and difficult syntax
that block comprehension even when vocabulary is familiar. But this situation
depends on the reader´s attitude, the previous knowledge of the topic and also the
level of English that readers have.
The purpose in this skill is that readers understand syntax through different
activities in which the bottom-up strategies are used. Maybe the text will be difficult,
but following the instructions can make comprehension easy. Some of those
activities are: Predict how the paragraph fits into the wider text using the previous
knowledge, try to summarize the reading, check whether there are any lexical
barriers to comprehension; underlying new words, but taking into account the
context in order to make easy the interpretation of words, identifying gaps in the
message received after one reading, trying to organize the ideas of the message.
This stage is necessary to ask some questions about the text.
Therefore, it is possible to simplify sentences, which consist in removing all the
optional parts of the sentences systematically in order to have clear sentences.
First, the readers can “identify the cohesive elements and find out what each refers
to.”114 The readers can ask questions like who/ what? what sort?. “Rewrite the
sentences as two or more sentences by removing coordinating conjunctions,”115
this is a good exercise, now that helps the readers use coordinating conjunctions. 114Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 82 115 Ibidem p. 82
55
“Find the nouns and remove any items following them which are part of the same
noun group.”116Readers have to be able to identify nouns that help them determine
the beginning of a sentence. “Search the text for nominalizations and if necessary
establish what proposition each implies.”117 The readers have to supply some
constituents in order to find nominalization, and also to know preposition in order to
reach it. “Identify the verbs and use of the who/what does what? Techniques to find
the subject, object, etc. of each.”118 It is very important to learn to identify the verbs
and the object, but this helps them a lot for developing this skill.
Text Attack Skill 2: Recognizing and Interpreting Cohesive Devices.
Cohesion is “the part of grammar that reflects the coherence of the writer`s thought
and helps readers make the right connections between ideas.”119 These cohesive
devices help to attack text. Because it affects the signification of a sentence, which
includes pro-form, ellipsis or lexical cohesion, some of them are explained as sub-
skills of cohesion.
The first sub-skill is interpreting pro- forms, which consists of those words that the
writers use in order to avoid needless repetition on the sentences, for example: it,
our, this, those, then, one. Also this refers to comparative words as smaller, same,
additional, such, and other. The goal is to understand what it is referring to, asking
questions that help to this process, besides that, students can supply a text
containing varied pro- forms and also “supply a text with some references items
omitted and replace by gasp.”120
The second sub-skill refers to interpreting elliptical expressions, which consist of
“omitting rather than repeating information that the reader’s common sense can
readily supply.”121 The ellipsis helps the readers to supply information from
elsewhere, and it seems little difficult, but it becomes difficult when readers do not 116 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 82 117 Ibidem p. 83 118 Ibidem p. 84 119 Ibidem p. 86 120 Ibidem p. 88 121 ibidem p. 89
56
recognize that the information is incomplete and when they search the text and
retrieve the required information. The goal is to identify the absence of something,
and the first stage is presenting examples in which students can answer questions
like: how many things? Who? Tell me something about…? The second stage is to
omit words that represent the same part of speech; for instance verbs, adjectives,
nouns etc., including more complex expressions. “The next stage is to supply texts
in which elliptical sentences occur.”122 The purpose is to make or expand the
sentences by including the elements that are missing but at the same time those
elements can be understood.
The third sub-skill is interpreting lexical cohesion. This refers to synonymies
hyponymy, metaphors that writers use in order to avoid “repetition by using a
different expression with similar meaning.”123 The goal here is to understand that
two or more different expressions refer to the same thing. That is why readers have
to supply a suitable text where they have to indicate terms with the same referent
using maker in their pages, besides that readers have “to collect term and show
their relationship diagrammatically.”124 It means that readers have to look for words
that are related with the text that they are reading.
Text Attack Skill 3: Interpreting Discourse Markers.
Discourse markers help to recognize the ideas of writers. The discourse markers
“often show the relationship the writers intend between two parts of the text”125.
There are different markers that help to readers to understand better the message,
some of them signal the sequence of events, others the discourse organization,
and the last one signal the writer`s point of view.
With this in mind it is important to create awareness of those markers, so that
readers understand how each marker operates, however those markers belong to
different groups, consequently it is going to present the way of training them: First, 122 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 91 123 Ibidem p. 91 124 Ibidem p. 93 125 Ibidem p. 94
57
“supply a text with markers omitted and replaced by gaps”126 give the students a
list of markers presented and studied before this task and present them an
exercise with multiple choice. Second “supply a text with the gasp left empty”127
where students can think about the markers that belong to the text. Also is good to
supply text in which the sentences are given in full but also presented in a multiple
choice format, in which students adequate according to the context, with the
purpose that students can reconstruct the text with markers that they considers
necessary for them.
2.1.1.2.6.2.2 Understanding Discourse This section concerns to contextual meaning and pragmatic meaning of individual
sentence in a text and the way to combine with other sentences in order to produce
a coherent message. The skills presented in this section are: recognizing functional
value, recognizing text organization, recognizing the presuppositions underlying
the text, recognizing implications and making inferences and prediction.
Text Attack Skill 4: Recognizing functional value
In this skill readers try to understand the rhetorical organization of a text that are
associated with propositional, contextual, and pragmatic meaning where a
sentence can be multifunctional, depending on the context where the sentences is
writing.
Taking into account the importance to develop this skill there are some activities
that help to this process. The first thing is that this corresponds to a whole text or a
paragraph where students have to interpret according to the context and they
have to say what kind of text is this, for instance , an assertion , a hypothesis, a
classification and so on. The second thing is related with diagrams where students
are going to explain the texts through a diagram according to their understanding.
The third one is to provide the students with “a skeletal functional description of a
126 Ibidem p. 97 127 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 97
58
short text a few sentences long”128 with the goal that students arrange sentences
and do a good paragraph in order to do a coherent text in which sentences has
the intended value.
Text Attack skill 5: Recognizing text organization
This skill refers on “how the texts are organized and see how ideas hang
together”129Through different activities which allow to skim the context that closed
the text. It demands critical thinking and most or the activities are working in group
work, because these stimulate a good discussion.
There are three ways in order to work with this skill. First, through organization of a
paragraph into text where students can work on a sequence of paragraph,
identifying an opening or concluding paragraph putting in order those paragraphs,
looking for sentences that fit into paragraph, and so on.
Second, the organization of sentences into paragraph, where students have to
identify the key sentence of a paragraph, besides that, they have to know the
correct place of this sentence, and also they have to “choose sentences where the
sequence is clear.”130 Students have to develop that ability to create a coherent
paragraph from scrambled texts.
Third, Text diagrams, which allow to “display the structure of a text.131 It means the
way and ideas that information is understood by the readers. Those texts diagrams
can be different, because depend on the schema´s students how the text has been
understood. The goal is to present the important ideas in a diagram, taking into
account that a text diagram can be changed by another even though those belong
to the same text.
128 Ibidem p. 105 129 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 106 130 Ibidem p. 108 131 Ibidem p. 109
59
Text attack skill 6 and 7: Recognizing presuppositions, implication and making
inferences.
To recognize presupposition, implications and to make inference are the skills that
readers or students have to reach in order to understand the text. “The
presuppositions are divided into two groups:
1. The knowledge and experience that the writer expects the reader to
have.”132As it was mentioned before it is related with the previous
knowledge that readers have about the topic, which is known as schema. It
allows that students or readers understand the text.
2. “The opinions, attitudes, emotions that the writer expect the reader to share,
or at least to understand”133 which allows to share experience about the text.
The goal is that students come to grasp with the text and the importance
that their opinions have during the reading
Refers to implications and making inference this hopes that readers have their own
conclusions from facts, and point in an argument. In order to make a good job as
readers it is necessary to “make use of common sense, powers or reasoning,
knowledge of the world and schemata.”134 The developments of other skills, which
are related with the recognition of functional value, depend from those aspects as
presuppositions and inferences.
Although this skill seems difficult, it can be improved through practice, working with
inferences on some texts. Here, it shows some ways in order to improve it:
1. “Supply sentences involving presuppositions”135 throughout the reading
students have to identify what statements are closely related with the text,
always following the directions given by the teachers.
132 Ibidem p. 112 133 Christine Nuttall, Teaching Reading skills in a foreign Language, 2000, p. 112 134 Ibidem p. 115 135 Ibidem p. 117
60
2. Read a text and identify what facts are implicit in the text.
3. Supply a longer text with a set of statements and identify which facts can be
inferred from a text. The goal is to identify is statements can be assume or
implied from the reading.
Most of these activities are developed in groups because they create a lot of
discussions and also help students understand texts better.
Text attack skill 8: Prediction.
This skill “relates to the text as a sequence development of thought.”136Prediction is
possible because writers organize their ideas; people tend to predict what is going
to happen. It involves schemata and it begins from the moment that people read
the title and from the expectation of what the book concerns.
In order to improve or develop this skill students have to face to text which they can
discuss after they have read, maybe identifying some clues, making questions and
predictions about the next paragraph. The goal is that students think about what is
summing next with a single sentence, clause or paragraph
2.1.1.2.7 Intensive and Extensive Reading Depending on the interest of reading, students or readers can read in two ways:
Intensively and extensively. The intensive reading tends to increase the vocabulary
because the lesson consists of a series of language points. This is characterized
because:
1. “It is useful for study purposes because it slows speed allow to students to
stop and look new words up in the dictionary.
2. Intensive reading is really more a language study method that a form of
reading”137
136 Ibidem p. 118 137 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 359
61
Intensive reading tends to be boring because students pay more attention in
vocabulary and grammar than in reading comprehension. The speed is slow, and it
is considered often difficult. On the other hand, extensive reading tends that
students understand the meaning of text, usually as quickly as possible. This
implies “reading of large quantities of material or long text, reading for global or
general understanding, obtain pleasure from the text.”138Although this seems more
general than the first one, this allows students to read fast and fluently and for
general understanding and enjoyment. But students can become good readers if
they are involved in the development of both, intensive and extensive reading.
2.1.1.2.8 Reading Stages Reading stages allow the integration of communicative skills because at the end of
the reading, students are able to summarize, evaluate, reflect, analyze, predict,
and guess and so on. This is achieved through three stages: First, pre- reading,
where students identified the ideas, opinions, which they have about the topic and
also the purpose of reading the text. Second, while-reading, here students identify
the organization of a text, extract the information of a text and what they infer from
the text. Third, post- reading, students evaluate if they can use the information for
further purposes, and also if the text demand completion.
2.1.2 PRODUCTIVE SKILLS “Speaking and writing involve language production and are therefore often referred
to as Productive Skills.”139 When learners want to produce language obviously they
have to use the speaking or the writing skill, those skills let them transmit their
ideas, thoughts, messages to others.
2.1.2.1. SPEAKING SKILL The speaking skill is part of the productive skills, because it is throughout this skill
that people show their knowledge of English language and how much have the
138 Ibidem p. 360 139 Jeremy Harper, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman , p. 16
62
ability to speak fluently and process information. Even though for many of students
this is considered “one of the most difficult skills language learners have to face.”140
The main purpose of this skill is conversation, in which different elements of
language features and mental social processing are presented. Among the
language features necessary for spoken production are:
• Connected speech: this refers with the ability that the speaker has in order
to use fluent connected speech that consists in the modification and
emission of sounds and not only to produce individual phonemes of
English. For instance; pronounce the verb to be in a contracted form.
• Expressive Devices: This is used in face to face interaction because it refers
to the speed, volume, expression of emotions and the intensity students
show in front of their classmates.
• Lexis and grammar: In this language feature students are involved in
specific speaking context, like telephone conversations, job interviews, etc.,
for their teacher can supply a variety of sentences for different functions
such as agreeing or disagreeing, expressing surprises ,etc.
• Negotiation Language: In this language feature teacher and students
negotiate phrases, statements or questions that students can say during
the activity in order to understand what they are saying. They use
negotiation language to show the structure of their thoughts, or reformulate
what they are saying. They use negotiation language to show the structure
of their thoughts, or reformulate what they are saying in order to be clearly.
Another element is mental processing or social processing which involves the
knowledge of language skills, and the rapid processing skills that speakers have to
produce while they are talking.
140 Neil McLaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 321
63
The first one is language processing : In this students process language in their
own needs using words and phrases that they have already known trying to put in
order their ideas with the purpose of sharing a comprehensible idea for their
partners. The second one is interacting with others: once their ideas are ordered in
their minds, students can share them with others. This means that effective
speaking also involves a good deal of listening. The third one is (on the spot)
information processing: the way how the information is processed in a slowly way,
the response will be in the same way and this situation is not confortable for
speakers and listeners. On the contrary if the information is processed in the
moment they get it, it will have an effective communication between speakers and
listeners.
Generally, when students are not able to express themselves in English language
they feel stressed. Some of the difficulties come from the areas of syntax,
vocabulary and morphology because they find difficult to construct sentences using
the correct expression or the exact word. In order to solve this situation, here are
presented different activities that can be developed in the classroom:
• Acting from a script: Most of the teachers ask to students to perform this
activity based on dialogues presented in the book that they use. So students
often act out dialogues that are in their books, and also they write similar
dialogues and they act out their own dialogues in front of the class. It is
important to give the necessary time in order to write and perform the
dialogues.
• Communication Games: these are presented with the purpose to provoke
communication among students, frequently; those games depend on an
information gap where students have to solve a puzzle, draw pictures, put
things in the right order, etc.
One of the games that provide fluency is called “twenty questions” in which
the chairperson thinks of an object and teams start making yes no
64
questions. They get points if they guess the answers for twenty questions or
less. Another game is called “Just a minute”, here the students have to
speak for sixty seconds about a special topic given by the teacher, the
person who is speaking at the end of sixty seconds get points.
• Questionnaires: In this activity both questioner and respondent have
something to say to each other. Students can design questionnaires using
the grammar and vocabulary that they learned in previous classes, teachers
can act as a resource helping them to design questionnaires. Besides these
questionnaires can be the basis of others activities like discussions or
prepared talks.
• Prepared talks: In this activity students have to make a presentation on a
topic of their own choice or they can use the questionnaire as a basis in
order to prepared talks. This activity also gives the opportunity to develop
another skill that is writing which helps students to organize their ideas and
then share them with their partners.
• Discussion: This can be generated from the questionnaires and talks,
depending how interesting the topic became. The same questions give the
chance to open a discussion in small groups, although some students do
not like to be exposed to this activity because of the lack of vocabulary and
fluency that they have, but if this activity has been studied with other
activities like questionnaires and talks, they would feel confortable during
the discussion, besides if the teacher acts as a monitor during the
discussion, this will be successful
• Simulation and role play: can be used to encourage general oral fluency, or
to train students for specific situations of real life. Some characteristics that
help to develop this activity in a good way are:
o Reality of function: Students have to act as a real participant of the
situation that they are representing in that moment.
65
o A simulated environment: teacher and students have to think or
create the right environment inside the classroom, as if the place is
real in that moment.
o Structure: They have to see how the activity is constructed and to
simulate in the best form in order to do the simulation effectively.
2.1.2.1.1 Functions of Spoken Language Spoken language has two main functions: “Transactional and interactional, the
main goal of the first one is to convey information and ideas, whereas the second
one is devoted to communication”141
As we know in order to communicate is essential to interact with others, it means
that people have to transfer information and ideas in a clearly way , that is why is
reasonable to teach students control primarily transactional language which is
used to transfer information, this function is known as Productive Dimension.
It is important to aware students about the factors that affect the productive
dimension when they deal with the target language, some of those factors are:
“A) Linguistic: it refers to all kind of linguistic problems the speaker has to face as
well as the variety of new situations.
b) Psychological problems are mainly: inhibition when speaking in the presence of
others and lack of interest in the topic.
C) Cognitive problems are solved when students are given the stimulus to talk:
pictorial aids, theme, and so on”142.
On the other hands, the Interactive Dimension refers to communication, it means to
exchange information among people in which speakers tend to repeat the pattern
of their messages to overcome cognitive problems. These patterns are divided 141 Neil McLaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 323 142 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 234
66
into two , the first one is known as information routines, in which the speaker
convey information, and the second one is intention routines in which are include
whatever situations as “ familiar encounters, job interviews, conversation occurring
when checking in a hotel, lesson, telephone conversations.143
Summing up the functions of the interactional language is the maintenance of
social relationships which is oriented to the listener, for intake greeting, making
small talk, telling jokes, etc. On the contrary the function of transactional language
is the transfer of information, for instance; new broadcast, lectures, description,
instructions, and this is oriented to convey a message.
2.1.2.1.2 Communicative Strategies It is important to know that the way to learn a second language is from meaningful
interaction with others , that is why it is necessary that teacher deals with
interactive language use, so the question is what do learners need to know in
order to interact in the second language at their level of proficiency ?. The answer
is communicative strategies.
According to Bigate, there are some communicative strategies that learners deal
when they have communicative problems:
• Achievement Strategies. Most of the students face situations where they do
not find the correct word that they need to say in that moment, so learners
try to compensate by using a substitute, which are mentioned bellow:
o Guessing strategies: When learners invent a word, or borrowing a
word from the native language or also trying to literal translation
o Paraphrase strategies: When learners paraphrase to find the
expression that they need in that moment.
o Co- operative strategies: learners use their realia; such as object or
mimic to transmit the message. 143 Ibidem. p. 325
67
• Reduction Strategies. These kind of strategies are frequently use during the
practice of this skill. Why? Because learners fail in the attempt to convey a
message, so they reduce the message or abandon it. Two of them are
mentioned bellow:
o Avoidance strategies: the most simple is to avoid the message; it can
be for a phonetic cluster, a lexical word or the syntactic order of a
sentence.
o Compensatory strategies: It happens when the learners have
difficulties of expression and they repeat and repeat a part of a
message in order to have time to think and organize their ideas.
Also, when someone wants to speak in English has to take into account that is not
a matter of pronounce words or say sentences without sense, it is a matter of carry
a conversation reasonably competent. What does it mean? It is mean that the
speaker has to be able to transmit their thoughts or ideas in a comprehensible way
for the listener. It is important to identify when speaking is going to be perform,
which is the communicative task that is wanted to be reached, because in that
way it can be selected which of the following speaking micro skills are going to be
used:
• “Produce reduced forms of words and phrases.
• Produce fluent speech at different rates of delivery.
• Produce chunks of language of different lengths.
• Monitor their own oral production and various strategic devices, pauses,
fillers, self-corrections, backtracking to enhance the clarity of the message.
68
• Use facial features, kinesics, body language and other nonverbal cues along
with verbal language to convey meaning.”144
2.1.2.2. WRITING SKILL The writing skill is not something that can be learned easily or naturally as it can be
learned to speak even when some time ago people believed writing was ”simply
the graphic representation of spoken language”145, it was a big mistake because in
order to write it is necessary to acquire some special knowledge to be a competent
writer.
To write is not an imitative skill as it is to speak, writing is “indeed a thinking
process”146 and it requires an entirely different set of competencies. That set of
competencies allows the writer generate ideas, organize them coherently, use
discourse markers and rhetorical conventions to put them cohesively into written
text, revise text for clearer meaning, edit text for appropriate grammar, and
produce a final product. All of these important competencies are not developed
naturally, that is why this skill is considered for some people as the most difficult of
the four.
But there are some important things that can be taken into account when the
writing skill is being developed, the effect of “one`s native culture”147. Writing is
strongly influenced by previous knowledge on native language writing, both, native
language and foreign language are in some instances similar but not identical.
Native language patterns of thinking and writing simply cannot be ignored, that is
why the importance of teacher`s carefully attending to the native language
interference and consider it as one possible source of difficulty on students writing.
When writing in a second language is so influenced by native language, sometimes
mental blocks are provoked because the writer get anxious trying to do a perfect
writing using their knowledge about writing in their native language. To adopt 144 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 2nd Ed.p. 272 145Ibidem. p. 335 146 Ibidem p. 336 147 Ibidem p. 338
69
practices from native language in foreign language writing do not help the
perfection of the composition. How could native language writing practices affect
writing composition? When it is written with the patterns of native language it can
be found: less fluency, less accuracy, less effective, less using of appropriate
grammar, among other features. To avoid this it is necessary to determine from the
beginning of this process the fundamental differences between native and foreign
languages.
As it was mentioned before writing is not something that we develop naturally, it is
a learned behavior. In order to write, somebody has to teach us and it has to be
practiced constantly, for that reason the importance of incorporating practices of
good writers in students. They have to be encouraged to bring their own ideas,
offer their own critical analysis, and find their own voice, all of this in a written form.
Students have to be guided step by step through this process in order to produce
excellent writers.
A long way has to be run before trying to write a composition, it is not just a matter
of writing sentences. As good writers there are some very important aspects that
have to be taken into account: first of all, good writers have read; “by reading and
studying a variety of relevant types of texts, students can gain the important
insights both about how they should write and about subject matters that may
become the topic of their writing”148, the basis of writing is reading. Through
reading, other aspects are being developed as they are orthography, complexity
and vocabulary.
Why those aspects are developed by reading? Through it, they can realize the best
ways of putting the aspects mentioned before correctly. Apart from those aspects
writers have to be conscious that their writing is not for themselves, their written
product is oriented to somebody else, lot of different opinions, different knowledge
about the topic, and different cultures, so they have to put in practice the “cognitive
148 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001 2nd Ed. p. 347
70
empathy”149, that means that good writers can read their own writing from the
perspective of the mind of the targeted audience.
Writers need to be able to predict their audience`s general knowledge and how
their choice of language will be interpreted, besides that they have to choose the
best way to address to them through the different kinds of writing compositions:
descriptive, comparative, contrastive, illustrative, defending, criticize or argue.
Because good writing requires an extensive process, a teacher has to make sure
that students are carefully led through appropriate stages in the process of
composing with the intention that an effective written product is created.
After students are conscious about the aspects presented before is time to start
writing. Now the three stages of writing are presented: pre writing, drafting, and
revising. In the pre writing stage, students are encouraged to the generation of
ideas. To do this possible, it is necessary that students have all the knowledge
about the topic and it can be by reading extensively, discussing the topic, or
conductive some outside research. After that, writers have enough material in
order to start, from the knowledge they got, a brainstorming is a good choice to
begin writing. Brainstorming permits students to approach the topic with an open
mind, they free themselves to come up with the ideas that they might not even
know they had. When brainstorming is developed, students have to “take between
five and ten minutes to list every idea that comes to their mind”150, after that “go
over the list to evaluate what they have written and cross the ideas that do not
fit”151.
Another way to generate ideas is to begin with free writing, with this technique
writers are free to write everything that comes to their minds about the topic without
worries about grammar, spelling and punctuation. It is an initial exploration of the
ideas that they have about the topic, and then take out just the ideas that they
consider better for their composition. Now, they have the topic and the ideas about
149 Ibidem p. 342 150 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001.2nd Ed. p. 349 151 Ibidem.
71
it, it is time to put them into formal paragraphs. That is called drafting. The drafting
can be done the times the writers consider necessary before presenting the final
product. In this stage, writing is exposed to changes, after writing the first draft
writers can ask for the opinion of others to discover the impact of their words on the
thoughts of their readers, so that they can then use the information to improve what
they have written. All good writers go through several steps of revisions on their
drafting because they want o make their writing the best it can be and this stage
give advantages to writers to keep improving what they have already done.
These stages help to the writing process to produce good compositions. It is clearly
known that nobody is born being an excellent writer and in some cases students
get in shock when the time to produce writing begins, but trough the three stages
the torturing process of writing becomes in an easy process, and they can develop
the following micro skills:
• Produce writing at an efficient rate of speaking to suit the purpose.
• Use acceptable grammatical systems (e.g. Tense, agreement, and
pluralization), patterns and rules.
• Produce graphemes and orthographic patterns of English.
• Convey links and connections between events and communication such
relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given information,
generalization, and exemplification.
• Develop and use a battery of writing strategies, such as accurately
assessing the audience`s interpretation , using prewriting devices, writing
with fluency in the first drafts, using paraphrases and synonyms, soliciting
and instructor`s feedback, and using feedback for revising and editing.”152
152 Douglas Brown- Teaching by Principles- Longman- San Francisco State University- 2001.2nd Ed. P.343
72
2.1.2.3 PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES OF LANGUAGE SKILLS. During the process of acquiring a new language is important place students in a
level according to the abilities that they show in the development of every activity,
that is why, in this research some proficiency guidelines are described. Those
stated some “descriptions of what individuals can do with language in terms of
speaking, writing, listening, and reading in real-world situations in a spontaneous
and non-rehearsed context.”153 This proficiency guidelines describe five major
level of proficency: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Superior and
Distinguished.The major levels Novice, Intermediate and Advanced are divided into
Low, Mid and High. But because the kind of students that researchers observed,
only two of the five major levels of profeciency are describe: Novice and
Intermediate.
These Guidelines present the levels of proficiency as ranges, and describe what an
individual can and cannot do with language at each level, regardless of where,
when, or how the language was acquired. Together these levels form a hierarchy
in which each level subsumes all lower levels. And this facilitate the placement of
students in the level that they are.
2.1.2.3.1 Speaking
In this skill , two main levels of proficiency are described: Novice and Intermediate.
The description of each major level is representative of a specific range of abilities,
and those are divided into Low, Mid , and High sublevels. Here are described the
tasks that speakers can handle at each level, as well as the content, context,
accuracy, and discourse types associated with tasks at each level.
2.1.2.3.1.1 Novice
The first level is novice in which speakers are able to communicate short
messages on highly predictable, everyday topics that affect them directly. “They
use isolated words and phrases that have been encountered, memorized, and 153 www.actfl.org
73
recalled”154. It is difficult to understand to novice speakers even by the most
sympathetic interlocutors accustomed to non-native speech.
2.1.2.3.1.1.1 Novice Low
In this sublevel, speakers have no real functional ability and their pronunciation is
not so good.They are able to “exchange greetings, give their identity, and name a
number of familiar objects from their immediate environment”155 as long as they
have the adequate time and familiar cues. They are unable to perform functions or
handle topics pertaining to the Intermediate level, and cannot therefore participate
in a true conversational exchange
2.1.2.3.1.1.2 Novice Mid
In novice mid sublevel, speakers “communicate minimally by using a number of
isolated words and memorized phrases limited by the particular context in which
the language has been learned”156. They answer some direct questions with two
or three words at a time or give an occasional stock answer, using puases
frequently as they search for simple vocabulary. Novice Mid speakers may be
understood with difficulty even by sympathetic interlocutors accustomed to dealing
with non-natives.
2.1.2.3.1.1.3 Novice High
These speakers are able to manage successfully a number of uncomplicated
communicative tasks in straightforward social situations. Conversations are based
in personal information, basic objects, and a limited number of activities,
preferences and immediate needs, whcih are neccesary for survival in the target
language. They respond to simple, direct questions or requests for information.
154www.actfl.org. 155 Ibidem 156 Ibidem
74
Novice high speakers express personal meaning by relying heavily on learned
phrases or recombinations of these and what they hear from their interlocutor even
though their language consists primarily of short and sometimes incomplete
sentences in the present, and may be hesitant or inaccurate. Their “pronunciation,
vocabulary, and syntax may be strongly influenced by the first language”157. When
called on to handle a variety of topics and perform functions pertaining to the
Intermediate level, a Novice High speaker can sometimes respond in intelligible
sentences, but will not be able to sustain sentence-level discourse.
2.1.2.3.1.2 Intermediate
In this level speakers express personal meaning combining using the information
that they learned before.This information help them to ask simple questions and
handle a straightforward survival situation. Most of the speakers placed in this level
are understood by interlocutors who are accustomed to dealing with non-native
learners of the language.
2.1.2.3.1.2.1 Intermediate Low
In this sub level speakers able to handle successfully a limited number of
uncomplicated communicative tasks by creating with the language in social
situations. “Conversation is restricted to some of the concrete exchanges and
predictable topics related to basic personal information; for example, self and
family, some daily activities and personal preferences, and some immediate needs,
such as ordering food and making simple purchases”158. They make their major
effort in order to answer direct questions or requests for information. They are also
able to ask a few appropriate questions.
Intermediate Low speakers combine what they know and what they hear from their
interlocutors in order to express personal meaning eventhogh those are short
statements and discrete sentences. They show hesitancy and accuracies while
157 www.actfl.org 158 Ibidem
75
attempting to give forms to the message, looking for appropiate linguistic forms
and vocabulary in order to give a good answer..
2.1.2.3.1.2.2 Intermediate Mid
In this level the conversation is generally limited to those predictable and concrete
exchanges necessary for survival in the target culture. These include personal
information related to self, family, home, daily activities, interests and personal
preferences, as well as physical and social needs, such as food, shopping, travel,
and lodging.
Intermediate Mid speakers tend to function reactively, for example, they ask and
answer questions in order to obtain information to satisfy basic needs, such as
directions, prices, and services. During their speech, they make pauses,
reformulation, and self-corrections as they search for adequate vocabulary and
appropiate language forms to express themselves. They are generaly understood,
eventhogh thier limitations in vocabulary ,pronunciation,grammar,and syntax.
2.1.2.3.1.2.3 Intermediate High
This kind of speakers are able to converse with ease and confidence when dealing
with the routine tasks and social situations of the Intermediate level. They are able
to handle successfully uncomplicated tasks and social situations requiring an
exchange of basic information related to their work, school, recreation, particular
interests, and areas of competence.
Sometimes speakers can narrate and describe in all major time frames using
connected discourse of paragraph length, but not all the time. Typically, when they
attempt to perform Advanced-level tasks, their speech exhibits one or more
features of breakdown, such as the failure to carry out fully the narration or
description in the appropriate major time frame, an inability to maintain paragraph-
length discourse, or a reduction in breadth and appropriateness of vocabulary.
76
2.1.2.3.2 Writing
In this skill , two main levels of proficiency are described: Novice and Intermediate.
The description of each major level is representative of a specific range of abilities,
and those are divided into Low, Mid , and High sublevels. Here are described the
tasks that writers can handle at each level, as well as the content, context,
accuracy, and discourse types associated with the writing tasks at each level.
2.1.2.3.2.1 Novice
Writers in this level are characterized by the ability to produce lists and notes,
primarily by writing short words and phrases. These writers can reproduce
practiced material to convey the most simple messages. In addition, they can
transcribe familiar words or phrases, copy letters of the alphabet or syllables of a
syllabary, or reproduce basic characters with some accuracy.
2.1.2.3.2.1.1 Novice Low
In this sublevel writers are able to transcribe familiar words or phrases, form
letters in an alphabetic system, copy and produce isolated, basic strokes in
languages that use syllabaries or characters. Given adequate time and familiar
cues, they can reproduce from memory a very limited number of isolated words or
familiar phrases, but errors are to be expected.
2.1.2.3.2.1.2 Novice Mid
In this sublevel writers can supply limited information on simple forms and
documents, and other basic biographical information, such as names, numbers,
and nationality. They can reproduce a modest number of words and phrases in
context and also show a high degree of accuracy when writing on well-practiced,
familiar topics using limited formulaic language. Errors in spelling or in the
representation of symbols may be frequent. There is little evidence of functional
writing skills.
77
2.1.2.3.2.1.3 Novice High
Writers in this sublevel can meet limited basic practical writing needs using lists,
short messages, postcards, and simple notes. They are able to express
themselves within the context in which the language was learned, relying mainly on
practiced material. Their writing is focused on common elements of daily life. They
use the knowledge that they have in order to create simple sentences on very
familiar topics, but are not able to sustain sentence-level writing all the time. They
have lack of vocabulary and grammar, that is why that their writing at this level
may only partially communicate the intentions of the writer.
2.1.2.3.2.2 Intermediate
Writers at the Intermediate level are able to meet practical writing needs, such as
simple messages and letters, requests for information, and notes. In addition, they
can ask and respond to simple questions in writing. These writers can create with
the language and communicate simple facts and ideas in a series of loosely
connected sentences on topics of personal interest and social needs. They write
primarily in present time using basic vocabulary and structures to espress
meaning.
2.1.2.3.2.2.1 Intermediate low
Intermediate low writers can create statements and formulate questions based on
familiar material. Most sentences are recombinations of learned vocabulary and
structures. These are short and simple conversational-style sentences with basic
word order, which are written almost exclusively in present time. Writing tends to
consist of a few simple sentences, often with repetitive structure. Topics are tied to
highly predictable content areas and personal information. Vocabulary is adequate
to express elementary needs with basic errors in grammar, word choice,
punctuation, spelling, and in the formation and use of non-alphabetic symbols.
78
2.1.2.3.2.2.2 Intermediate Mid
Writers in this sublevel are able to meet a number of practical writing needs. They
can write simple communications, compositions, and requests for information in
loosely connected texts about personal preferences, daily routines, common
events, and other personal topics. They show evidence of control of basic
sentence structure and verb forms. This writing is best defined as a collection of
discrete sentences and questions loosely strung together. There is little evidence
of deliberate organization.
2.1.2.3.2.2.3 Intermediate High
Writers in this sublevel are able to meet all practical writing needs of the
Intermediate level. Besides, they can write compositions and simple summaries
related to work and school experiences. They can narrate and describe in different
time frames when writing about everyday events and situations. The vocabulary,
grammar, and style of writers essentially correspond to those of the spoken
language. Their wrintings have numerous and perhaps significant errors but is
generally comprensible.
2.1.2.3.4 Listening
Listening describe two major levels of proficiency: Novice and Intermediate. The
description of each major level is representative of a specific range of abilities.
Together these levels form a hierarchy in which each level subsumes all lower
levels. Those are divided into Low , Mid, and High sublevels. This makes the
Listening descriptions parallel to the other skill-level descriptions.
Listening comprehension is based largely on the amount of information listeners
can retrieve from what they hear and the inferences and connections that they can
make. By describing the tasks that listeners can perform with different types of oral
texts and under different types of circumstances.
79
2.1.2.3.4.1 Novice
Listeners in this level can understand key words, true aural cognates, and
formulaic expressions that are highly contextualized and highly predictable, such
as those found in introductions and basic courtesies. They understand words and
phrases from simple questions, statements, and also require repetition, rephrasing,
and a slowed rate of speech for comprehension listeners tend to recognize rather
than truly comprehend
2.1.2.3.4.1.1 Novice Low
In this sublevel, listeners are able occasionally to recognize isolated words or very
high-frequency phrases when those are strongly supported by context. These
listeners show virtually no comprehension of any kind of spoken message, not
even within the most basic personal and social contexts.
2.1.2.3.4.1. 2 Novice Mid
Listeners in this sublevel can recognize and begin to understand a number of
high-frequency, highly contextualized words and phrases including aural cognates
and borrowed words. They understand little more than one phrase at a time, and
repetition may be required.
2.1.2.3.4.1.3 Novice High
Listeners at the novice high sublevel are often but not always able to understand
information from sentence-length speech, one expression at a time, in basic
personal and social contexts where there is contextual or extralinguistic support,
though comprehension may often be very inconsistent.If they have learned the
vocabualry, they are able to understand speech dealing with areas of practical
need such as highly standardized messages, phrases, or instructions.
80
2.1.2.3.4.2 Intermediate
At the Intermediate level, listeners can understand information conveyed in simple,
sentence-length speech on familiar or everyday topics and basic information wtih
hig –frequency vocabulary. They are generally able to comprehend one expression
at a time Listeners rely heavily on redundancy, restatement, paraphrasing, and
contextual clues. Intermediate listeners require a controlled listening environment
where they hear what they may expect to hear.
2.1.2.3.4.2 .1 Intermediate Low
In this sublevel, listeners are able to understand some information from sentence-
length speech, one expression at a time, in basic personal and social contexts,
though comprehension is often uneven.
2.1.2.3.4.2 .2 Intermediate Mid
Listeners in this level are able to understand simple, sentence-length speech, one
utterance at a time, in a variety of basic personal and social contexts.
Comprehension is most often accurate with highly familiar and predictable topics
although a few misunderstandings may occur.
2.1.2.3.4.2 .3 Intermediate High
At the Intermediate High sublevel, listeners are able to understand, with ease and
confidence, simple sentence-length speech in basic personal and social contexts.
They can derive substantial meaning from some connected texts typically
understood by Advanced-level listeners.
2.1.2.3.5 Reading
Reading describe two major levels of proficiency:Novice, and Intermediate. The
description of each major level is representative of a specific range of abilities.
Together these levels form a hierarchy in which each level subsumes all lower
81
levels. Reading is an interpretive skill. Reading comprehension is based largely on
the amount of information readers can retrieve from a text, and the inferences and
connections that they can make within and across texts.
2.1.2.3.5.1 Novice
At the Novice level, readers can understand key words and cognates, as well as
formulaic phrases that are highly contextualized. They are able to get a limited
amount of information from highly predictable texts in which the topic or context is
very familiar, such as a hotel bill, a credit card receipt, or a weather map. Readers
in this level may rely heavily on their own background knowledge and
extralinguistic support to derive meaning.
Readers at the Novice level are best able to understand a text when they are able
to anticipate the information in the text. At the Novice level, recognition of key
words, cognates, and formulaic phrases makes comprehension possible.
2.1.2.3.5.1.1 Novice Low
In this sublevel, readers are able to recognize a limited number of letters, symbols
or characters. They are occasionally able to identify high-frequency words and
phrases when strongly supported by context.
2.1.2.3.5.1.2 Novice Mid
Readers in this sublevel are able to recognize the letters or symbols of an
alphabetic or syllabic writing system or a limited number of characters in a
character-based language. They can identify a number of highly contextualized
words and phrases including cognates and borrowed words but rarely understand
material that exceeds a single phrase. Rereading is often required.
82
2.1.2.3.5.1.3 Novice High
Readers in the Novice High sublevel can understand, fully and with relative ease,
key words and cognates, as well as formulaic phrases across a range of highly
contextualized texts. They can understand predictable language and messages
such as those found on train schedules, roadmaps, and street signs if the
vocabulary has been learned. They are typically able to derive meaning from short,
non-complex texts that convey basic information for which there is contextual or
extralinguistic support.
2.1.2.3.5.2 Intermediate
At the Intermediate level, readers can understand information conveyed in simple,
predictable, loosely connected texts. Readers rely heavily on contextual clues. If
the format of the text is familiar, such as in a weather report or a social
announcement, they can most easily understand information. Intermediate-level
readers are able to understand texts that convey basic information such as that
found in announcements, notices, and online bulletin boards and forums.
They are able to understand messages found in highly familiar, everyday contexts.
At this level, readers may not fully understand texts that are detailed or those texts
in which knowledge of language structures is essential in order to understand
sequencing, time frame, and chronology.
2.1.2.3.5.2.1Intermediate Low
In this sublevel, readers are able to understand some information from the simplest
connected texts dealing with a limited number of personal and social needs,
although there may be frequent misunderstandings. Readers at this level will be
challenged to derive meaning from connected texts of any length.
83
2.1.2.3.5.2.2 Intermediate Mid
At the Intermediate Mid sublevel, readers are able to understand short, non-
complex texts that convey basic information and deal with basic personal and
social topics to which the reader brings personal interest or knowledge, although
some misunderstandings may occur. Readers at this level may get some meaning
from short connected texts featuring description and narration, dealing with familiar
topics.
2.1.2.3.5.2.3 Intermediate High
Readers in this sublevel are able to understand fully and with ease short, non-
complex texts that convey basic information and deal with personal and social
topics to which the reader brings personal interest or knowledge. They also are
able to understand some connected texts featuring description and narration
although there will be occasional gaps in understanding due to a limited knowledge
of the vocabulary, structures, and writing conventions of the language.
2.1.2.4. Communicative Competences The communicative competences are other important elements in the
communicative approach. Communicative competences are those that help to the
acquisition of a foreign language because the native speaker knows not only the
abstract system but also what is socially appropriate or inappropriate,
“communicative competence embraces both the knowledge of the formal system of
a language and the use of that system in communication”159 in other words when
and when not to speak, what to talk about with whom, when, where and in what
manner.
The competences needed to be developed for the acquisition of English Language
(According to the Ministry of Education of El Salvador) are: Grammatical
competence, Sociolinguistic competence, and Strategic competence and
159 Neil Mc Laren P. 472
84
Discourse competence. Each of them is related when a target language is
performed, these competences deal with different elements necessaries for an
effective communication, such as:
a. Grammatical Competence
This competence masters the language code; it deals with morphology, syntax,
lexis, phonology, and orthography.
b. Sociolinguistic Competence
The language is a social vehicle and it allows social exchanges in which the
participants achieve communicative goals by making use of their linguistic
knowledge (grammatical competence) as a communication channel.
“Sociolinguistic competence is concerned with the “appropriateness of
communication depending on the context including the participants and the rules
for interaction”160
This competence prepares the speaker for linguistic understanding dealing with
cultural aspects too; linguistic and cultural understanding together lead to mutual
understanding between countries and people in a multilingual and increasingly
multicultural world.
c. Strategic Competence
This competence allows the language user incorporate linguistic and non-linguistic
codes in the performance of target language. “A set of strategies devised for
effective communication breaks down”161. The goal of this competence is to
produce oral discourse in a conversation to exchange general and specific
information on various topics. The more proficient or communicative competent the
language user becomes the less he or she needs to draw on strategic
competence.
160 Neil Maclaren, Daniel Madrid and Antonio Bueno- TEFL in Secondary Education- Universidad de Granada, 2005. p. 234.p. 517 161 ibidem
85
d. Discourse Competence
This competence is highly related with grammatical and sociolinguistic
competences, because these competencies are put into practice with it. “Discourse
competence can be seen as the ability to understand, create and develop forms of
the language that is longer than sentence”162.
This competence can be performed effectively until the learning process of the
target language is advanced, because first of all grammatical and sociolinguistic
competences have to be developed. Discourse competence is concerned with the
cohesion and coherence of utterances or sentences.
162 Ibidem, P.519
86
2.2. EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK
2.2.1 Monograph I- Geographic Facts:
A- Department: San Salvador
b- Municipality: San Salvador
c- Ruling Party: ARENA
d- Number of cities: 19
e- Population Total: 540,898
II-Historical Data:
The city of San Salvador is the capital of El Salvador. As the nation's capital, the
city hosts the headquarters of the Government and the Council of Ministers of El
Salvador, the Legislative Assembly, the Supreme Court and other State institutions
and agencies, as well as the official residence of the President of the Republic. The
origins of the city can be traced to before the Spanish Conquest. It is near the
present location of San Salvador that Pipil groups established their capital,
Cuscatlán. Not much is known about this city, since it was abandoned by its
inhabitants in an effort to avoid the Spanish rule.
Under the orders of Pedro de Alvarado, Gonzalo de Alvarado and Diego de
Holguin were ordered to take the settlement they found and develop it. Diego de
Holguin became the first mayor of San Salvador after the town was founded on
April 1, 1525. However, later in the sixteenth century, it was rebuilt and changed
locations twice in 1528 and 1545. Originally founded in what is now the
archaeological site Ciudad Vieja, north of the present-day city, it was moved to the
Valle de Las Hamacas or the Acelhuate Valley, named so due to the intense
seismic activity that characterizes it. The new site was chosen as it had more
space and more fertile land, thanks to the pristine Acelhuate River. As the
87
population of the country remained relatively small up until the early twentieth
century, the city grew very slowly.
III- Demography: San Salvador is the country's most populous city and the second largest in Central
America with 1,566,629 inhabitants themselves, and 316,090 inhabitants in the
great San Salvador or AMSS (Metropolitan Area of San Salvador). San Salvador is a department located in central El Salvador. Its area is 886.15
square kilometers and its population is 1,567,156 inhabitants. It is divided into
three districts (Santo Tomas, San Salvador and Tonacatepeque), which are
divided into 19 municipalities.
IV-Hydrography:
The hydrography of the department of San Salvador, includes the following rivers:
Lempa, Las Cañas, Sucio, Amayo, Matizate or Viejo, Acelhuate, Guaycume,
Guazapa, San Antonio, Tomayate, Mariona, Ilohuapa, Tihuapa, Huiscoyolate,
Papaleguayo, Chichicalapa, Huizen, Quezalate, hutias, Jutillón, El Coco,
chichiguiste, El Muerto, Guacuchillo, Cuitapán, shuti, Cuaya, Cuapa, Cusmajapa
and Lake Ilopango.
V- Economic and social structure, according to access to services:
1- Basic Services:
A) Electricity
B) Water
C) Drains
D) Paving
E) Garbage collectors
F) Telephone
2- Local Resources:
88
A) Market
B) Parks and squares
C) Government Offices
D) Post Offices
E) Public and private Telephones
F) Sport Fields
G) Telephone Companies
H) Banks
I) Political Parties
3- Health Services Indicators:
A) Public Hospitals:
1- Hospital Nacional Rosales
2- Hospital Nacional de Maternidad “Dr. Raúl Arguello E.”
3- Hospital Nacional Zacamil “Dr. Juan José Fernández”
4- Hospital Nacional General y de Psiquiatría “Dr. José Molina
Martínez”
5- Hospital Nacional de Niños “Benjamín Bloom”
B) Private Hospitals:
1- Hospital de Diagnostico Colonia Medica
2- Hospital Centro de Cirugía Farela
3- Hospital Instituto de Ojos
4- Hospital Centro Ginecológico
5- Hospital de Ojos, Otorrino y Especialidades
6- Hospital Merliot
7- Hospital Paravida
8- Hospital Pro-familia
9- Hospital Centro de Emergencias.
C) Clinics:
89
1- Clínicas Medicas
2- Clínica Comunal Zacamil
3- Clínica Medica la Esperanza
4- Clínica Pro-Familia
5- Clínica Parroquial Inmaculada Concepción
6- Clínica de Salud Mental y Sexual
7- Clínica Medica Hermanos de Asís
D) Laboratories:
1- Laboratorios López
2- Laboratorios Paill
3- Laboratorios Arsal
4- Laboratorios Lainez
5- Laboratorios Phermedic
6- Laboratorios Vijosa
7- Laboratorio Pro-Familia
4- Indicators of Education Services:
1- Main Public Schools:
A) Centro Escolar “Barrio Belén”
B) Centro Escolar “Cantón Veracruz”
C) Centro Escolar “Católico Corazón de Maria”
D) Centro Escolar “Católico Santa Ana”
E) Centro Escolar “Fabio Castillo”
F) Centro Escolar “Francisco Gamboa”
G) Centro Escolar “General Ramón Belloso”
H) Centro Escolar “José Matías Delgado”
90
I) Centro Escolar “Republica de Corea”
J) Complejo Educativo “Nuestra Señora del Rosario”
K) Complejo Educativo “Tomas Cabrera”
L) Instituto Nacional “Albert Camus”
M) Instituto Nacional de San Marcos
N) Instituto Nacional de San Martín
O) Instituto Nacional de Soyapango
P) Instituto Nacional “Simón Bolívar”
Q) Instituto Nacional de Ciudad Delgado
R) Instituto Nacional Gral. Francisco Morazán
2- Main Private Schools:
A) Colegio Angloamericano
B) Colegio Don Bosco
C) Colegio García Flamenco
D) Colegio Internacional
E) Colegio Laura Lehtinen
F) Colegio Montessoriano
G) Colegio Temach
H) Escuela Americana
I) Escuela Bilingüe Maquilishuat
91
J) Externado San José
K) Instituto Emiliani
L) Instituto Hermanas Somascas
M) Instituto Técnico EXSAL
N) Instituto Técnico Ricaldone
O) Liceo San Benito “House of Learning”
2.2.2 Description of the High School This research has been done in the Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán,
also known as “Central de Señoritas” located in San Salvador. This Secondary has
49 teachers; 22 in the morning shift and 27 in the afternoon one, and there is a
total of 1,190 students attending classes every day. The school has fourteen
classrooms, which are big, and confortable enough for students.
Now, this research was done using the information gathered during the observation
of different classes in which teacher and students were immersed. Besides, in this
process of gathering the information, it also used some instruments, such as:
journal, student`s questionnaires’, diagnostic test, check list observation and final
achievement test. In this Secondary, students attend in different schedules,
depending on the distribution of classes of every section. This high school has a
vision and a mission to achieve and excellent teaching learning process.
Vision: to be a leader institution to the formation of successful professionals
through learning processes that involves science, technology and humanism’s
being , such professionals capable to contributing to the development of our
country, El Salvador.
Mission: Graduate Secondary school students with a high degree of academic
level al sell as highly socially conscious people prepared to cope with a
92
changeable and demanding world with a critical and constructive attitude, and able
to contribute to the family, social, and labor development.
The Secondary High School has 1190 students, who are distributed in two big
groups; General High School and Technical High School. The first group is divided
in eight sections; four sections for 10th grade; which are named as: 1-A G, 1-B G, 1-
C G, 1-D G. And four sections for 11th grade; which are named as: 2-A G, 2-B G,
2-C G, 2-D G. The second group Technical High School is divided in eighteen
sections, six sections for 10th grade; which are named as : 1-A , 1-B , 1-C , 1-D,
1-E, 1-F. And six sections for 11th grade; which are named as: 2-A, 2-B, 2-C, 2-D,
2-E, and 2-F. And six sections for 12th grade; which are named as: 3-A, 3-B, 3-C,
3-D, 3-E, and 3-F.
There are four English teachers taking care of the different sections, two for
Technical High School and two for General High School. One of the afternoon
teacher teaches to 11th grade students and he is also the advisor for the 11th grade
students section A (2-A G), which was the group observed for about three months.
This group had English classes in the following schedule: Wednesdays from 2:45
pm to 3:30 pm, and Fridays from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm.
The English teacher starts the class greeting students, and asks for some
homework, but in some classes he starts by asking the students for the new
vocabulary that they learned in previous classes. He always encourages the
students to participate although some of them do not show interest when he is
asking them. During the development of classes, the English teacher speaks in
both languages, English and Spanish; each activity is explained in English
language and after that, the teacher translates into Spanish, even though some
students already understood the English explanation.
The English teacher states that he tries to develop the four skills based on the
communicative approach, but he also says that the topics he teaches are not
sequenced as the English syllabus proposes. He uses to teach his classes the
textbook named “Side by Side” Third Edition Book 3 by Steven J. Molinsky and Bill
93
Bliss. This book has ten units, each unit is divided into: vocabulary preview,
grammar explanation with examples, speaking practice, and reading, reading
check-up, listening practice and exercises.
At the end of every unit there is a chapter summary, some of them have other
activities beside the ones mentioned before, activities such as role play, writing
practice, etc. apart from the book exercises as a student’s journal. Side by Side
offers learners of English a dynamic, communicative approach to learn the
language. Its goal is to engage students in active, meaningful communicative
practice with the language. Side by Side Gazette appears periodically through the
texts. It contains different activities with magazine-style like facts files, interviews,
vocabulary expansion, cross cultural topics, authentic listening activities, questions
and answers about English grammar, email exchanges, and cartoon springboards
for interactive role-playing activities and features articles. In order to do this
possible, students have to develop the following with the goal to improve the four
skills:
For Listening, students listen from the teacher the correct pronunciation of the
vocabulary and from the recorded that they have to identify the words that they
hear and also to identify who is speaking.
For Reading, students read by themselves, after that one student reads aloud the
paragraph for the whole class, at the end of the reading; the teacher makes
corrections and asks questions about the reading to the rest of students. Besides,
students identify the vocabulary that they do not know or the tense used in the
paragraph it. The reading comprehension is developed through the reading check-
up exercises.
For speaking they repeat the vocabulary, in some cases teacher acts as a tape
recorder in order to teach the correct pronunciation of the vocabulary. Besides
students practice dialogues in pairs and after that, they perform the dialogues in
front of the class, in some exercises they share with their partners their
experiences related with the topic.
94
For writing, students make dialogue with the information or clues provided in the
book, using the vocabulary, the tense that they learned, and also they write about
themselves related with the topic.
Some of those activities are evaluated and at the end of the lesson they have a
quiz in which vocabulary and tense used during the lesson are evaluated. This quiz
includes different evaluation techniques as: multiple choices, true or false,
complementing or matching. Besides that quiz, students make a written test every
three months, this test covers more than one lesson and it is divided into written
and reading sections.
2.2.3 Description of Instruments This research is focused on the development of communicative skills. Some
authors thought that for an effective performance of communicative skills the
development of micro skills and competences and the applications of proficiency
guidelines are mandatory. All of them are right, but when all those elements are
joined. That is why; this research takes as important elements for the development
of communicative skills:, Competences, skills and micro skills and the proficiency
guidelines.
It is considered that taking into account those elements in the instruments; the
objectives of this research are going to be reached effectively. The instrument that
involved all those elements was filled out through observation of classes during
three months. To provide more facts to this research other instruments were
applied during the process in a population of 40 students of 2-A of Instituto
Nacional General Francisco Morazán, those instruments are: journal, check list
observation and final achivement test.
95
FIRST INSTRUMENT: JOURNAL
The first instrument is a journal; this instrument was designed to gather important
information of each class observed. The collected here concerns with the
information about the teacher and the student`s performance, which is considered
important for this research.
UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR
EDUCATION FACULTY THE COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS DEVELOPED BY ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS, SECTION “A”, FROM INSTITUTO NACIONAL GENERAL
FRANCISCO MORAZAN, SAN SALVADOR 2010-2011.
MONTH DATE AND TOPICS DESCRIPTION OF THE OBSERVATION OF THE CLASS
SECOND INSTRUMENT: OBSERVATION CHECK LISTS
The second instrument submmited were the observation checklists, these
instrument are allow to the researcher to gather the necessary information in order
to know in which level the students can be classified in each communicative skill
according to the theory.
96
UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR EDUCATION FACULTY
THE COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS DEVELOPED BY ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS, SECTION “A”, FROM INSTITUTO NACIONAL GENERAL FRANCISCO MORAZAN, SAN SALVADOR
2010-2011.
OBJECTIVE: To identify the outcome level of the macro and micro skills for communicating in English among eleventh grade students, at Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán, at the end of the school year, 2010.
PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES OF LANGUAGE SKILLS
NOVICE LEVEL
LEVEL LISTENING CHECK READING CHECK SPEAKING CHECK WRITING CHECK
Novice Low
Limited understanding of isolated words
Able to produce isolated words.
Able to identify isolated words and major phrases
Able to copy and produce the basic strokes.
Novice Mid
Able to understand some short utterances.
vocabulary sufficiente to handing simple elementary needs and expresing basic courtesies.
Can identify and incresing number of highly contextualized words and phrases.
Able to copy and transcribe familiar words or phrases and reproduce some from memory.
Comprehend words and phrases from simple question statement high frequency commands and courtesy.
Speaker is understood with great difficulty.
Able to recognize the symbols of and alphabetic and syllabic writing system
Novice High
Able to understand short learned utterances and some sentences lenght utterances.
Able to partially exchange by relying heavily on learned utterances.
Can read for instructional and directional purposes standarize messages phrases or expressions.
Able to write simple fixed expressions and limited memorized material
Can ask questions or make statements involving learned material.
Able to derive meaning from material
Can write names, numers, own nationality, and other simple autobiographical information.
97
UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR EDUCATION FACULTY
THE COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS DEVELOPED BY ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS, SECTION “A”, FROM INSTITUTO NACIONAL GENERAL FRANCISCO MORAZAN, SAN SALVADOR
2010-2011.
OBJECTIVE: To identify the outcome level of the macro and micro skills for communicating in English among eleventh grade students, at Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán, at the end of the school year, 2010.
PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES OF LANGUAGE SKILLS. INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
LEVEL LISTENIG CHECK READING CHECK SPEAKING CHECK WRITING CHECK
INTERMEDIATE LOW
ABLE TO UNDERSTAND SENTENCES IN A LIMITED NUMBER OF CONTENT AREAS
CAN ASK AND ANSWER QUESTIONS INITIATE AND RESPOND TO SIMPLE STATEMENTS AND MAINTING FACE TO FACE CONVERSATION
ABLE TO UNDERSTAND
MAIN IDEAS AND SOME
FACTS FROM SIMPLE TEXTS DEALING WITH
BASIC PERSONAL AND SOCIAL NEEDS
CAN WRITE SHORT MESSAGES, POSTCARDS AND TAKE DOWN SIMPLE NOTES
INTERMEDIATE MID
ABLE TO UNDERSTAND SENTENCES
ON A VARIETY OF TOPICS
RELATED TO PERSONAL
BACKROUND INTERESTS
AND ACTIVITIES,
SOCIAL CONVENTIONS
AND TASKS
ABLE TO TALK SIMPLY ABOUT
SELF AND FAMILY MEMBERS
ABLE TO READ SIMPLE TEXTS ABOUT WHICH THE READER HAS TO MAKE
MINIMAL SUPPOSITIONS
ABLE TO WRITE SHORT, SIMPLE TEXTS ABOUT
PERSONAL PREFERENCES,
DAILY ROUTINES, EVERYDAY
EVENTS AND OTHER TOPICS OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
CAN PARTICIPATE IN SIMPLE CONVERSATIONS ON TOPICS SUCH AS PERSONAL HISTORY AND LEISURE TIME ACTIVITIES.
CAN EXPRESS PRESENT TIME OR AT LEAST ONE OTHER TIME FRAME OR ASPECT CONSISTENTLY
98
THIRD INSTRUMENT: FINAL ACHIVEMENT TEST
And the last instrument was the final achievement test .The goal of this instrument
is to reach the second specific objective of this research; through this test
researchers find out the outcome level of the macro and micro skills. The test was
divided into the four communicative skills.
This test was applied during two days due the extension of it, now that the hour
class was not enough in order to finish it.
PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES OF LANGUAGE SKILLS. INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
LEVEL LISTENIG CHECK READING CHECK SPEAKING CHECK WRITING CHECK
INTERMEDIATE HIGH
ABLE TO UNDERSTAND
SIMPLE LENGHT
SPEECH IN BASIC
PERSONAL AND SOCIAL
CONTEXT WITH EASE AND
CONFIDENCE
ABLE TO CONVERSE EASE AND CONFIDENCE
ABLE TO UNDERSTAND
FULLY AND EASE SHORT,
NON COMPLEX TEXTS THAT
CONVEY BASIC INFORMATION
ABLE TO WRITE COMPOSITIONS
AND SIMPLE SUMMARIES RELATED TO WORK AND
SCHOOL EXPERIENCES
ABLE TO HANDLE SUCCESFULLY
UNCOMPLICATED TASKS ANS SOCIAL
SITUATIONS REQUIRING AN EXCHANGE OF
BASIC INFORMATION
ABLE TO UNDERSTAND
SOME CONNECTED
TEXTS FEATURING
DESCRIPTION AND
NARRATION
WRITERS CAN NARRATE AND DESCRIBE IN
DIFFERENT TIME FRAMES
99
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
“COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS DEVELOPED BY ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS; SECTION “A”, INSTITUTO NACIONAL GENERAL FRANCISCO MORAZÁN”
OBJECTIVE: To identify the outcome of the four skills(reading, istening, writing and speaking ) at the end of eleventh year of secondary school.
STUDENT`S NAME: ______________________ DATE: ________________
Indications: Choose the right answer for each item o question.
Listening
I. Listen to and identify who is speaking 1. a) a landlord
b) a boss c) a principal d) a driver
2. a) a doctor b) a mom c) a student d) a teacher
3. a) a singer b) a dentist c) a prayer d) a mechanic
4. a) a secretary b) a gardener c) a window cashier d) a baby sister
5. a) a doctor b) a bookkeeper c) a scientist d) a chef
6. a) a nurse b) a lawyer c) a movie theater cashier d) a police officer
100
II. Listen and choose the correct answer. 1. a) I practice football.
b) I´m practicing football. c) I practiced football. d) I was practicing football.
2. a) Yes, I was. b) Yes, I did. c) Yes, I am. d) Yes, I do.
3. a)Yes, I am.. b) Yes, I do. c) Yes, you are. d) Yes, I was.
4. a) She read the newspaper. b) She´s reading the newspaper. c) She reads the newspaper. d) She was reading the newspaper.
5. a) My husband cooked. b) My husband cook. c) My husband is cooking. d) My husband cooks.
6. a) No, they aren´t. b) No, they don´t. c) No, they weren´t. d) No, they didn´t.
7. a) Yes, she does. b) Yes, she is. c) Yes, she want. d) Yes, she did.
8. a) Yes, they do. b) Yes, I do. c) Yes, we do. d) Yes, you do.
9. a) Yes, they are. b) Yes, we are. c) Yes, you are. d) Yes, they were.
10. a) He want to be a soccer player. b) He wanted to be a soccer player. c) He´s playing soccer. d) He wants to be a soccer player.
101
III. Listen to the messages on Dave’s Machine and choose the activity that they are going to do.
1. Sara a) She will be glad to be in the party. b) She is in the Hospital. c) She will be taking her uncle to the hospital. d) She doesn´t want to go.
2. Bob
a) He and his girlfriend will be getting married. b) He and his wife will be attending a wedding. c) He a will be attending a wedding d) His wife will be attending a wedding.
3. Paula
a) She will be at the University. b) She will be meeting with her friends. c) She will be studying all weekend. d) She will be cleaning all weekend.
4. Joe
a) He will be visiting his mother. b) He will be visiting his brother. c) He will be visiting his girlfriend. d) He will be visiting his parents.
5. Carla
a) She’s very busy. b) She will not be there. c) She will be in another party. d) She will definitely be there.
Grammar and Vocabulary
I. Underline the correct answers. 1. My sister _______ very tired today.
A. be B. am C. is D. are
102
2. His _______ is a famous actress.
A. aunt B. uncle C.grandfather D. son
3. I’d like to be a _______ and work in a hospital.
A. lawyer B.nurse C.writer D.pilot 4. We _______ like rap music.
A.doesn’t B.isn’t C. aren’t D.don’t
5.There _______ a lot of water on the floor. What happened?
A. are B. is C.be D.am
6. He _______ TV at the moment.
A. watches B. is watching C. watched D. has watching 7. Helen is very _______. She doesn’t go out a lot.
A. bored B.confident C. angry D. shy
8. Did you _______ to the beach yesterday?
A. went B. were C. go D. goed
9. Have you got _______ orange juice? I’m thirsty.
A. some B. a C. no D. the
10.Let’s go into _______ garden. It’s sunny outside.
A. a B. any C at D. the
11. He’s _______ for the next train.
A. looking B. waiting C. listening D. paying
12. Mark _______ his car last week.
A. cleaned B. clean C .has cleaned D. is cleaning
13. I bought some lovely red _______ today.
A. cabbages B. cucumbers C. bananas D. apples
103
14. Which bus _______ for when I saw you this morning? A. did you wait B. had you waited C. were you waiting D. have you waited 15. Where _______ you like to go tonight?
A. do B. would C. are D. can
16. That’s the _______ film I’ve ever seen!
A. worse B. worst C. baddest D. most bad
17. My dad _______ his car yet.
A. hasn’t sold B. didn’t sell C. doesn’t sell D. wasn’t sold
18. I’ve been a doctor _______ fifteen years.
A. since B. for C. until D. by
19. Look at the sky. It _______ rain.
A. will B. can C. is going to D. does
20. If I _______ this homework, the teacher will be angry!
A. am not finishing B. won’t finish C. don’t finish D. didn’t finished
21. This book is even _______ than the last one I read!
A. most boring B. boringer C. more boring D. far boring
22. I’ll meet you _______ I finish work.
A. if B. when C. as D. so
23. We’re getting married _______ March.
A. in B. on C. at D. by
24. If you _______ steak for a long time, it goes hard.
A. cook B. are cooking C. have cooked D. cooked 25. I _______ you outside the cinema, OK?
A. ’ll see B. am going to see C. am seeing D. see
104
26. I _______ not be home this evening. Phone me on my mobile.
A. can B. could C. may D. should 27. The criminal _______ outside the hotel last night.
A. was caught B. has been caught C. is caught D. caught
28. He asked me if I _______ a lift home.
A. wanted B. want C. was wanting D. had wanted
29. If I _______ older, I’d be able to vote in elections.
A. had B. am C. were D. have
30. You _______ go to the supermarket this afternoon. I’ve already been.
A. mustn’t B. can’t C. don’t need D. won’t
31. Kathy drives _______ than her sister.
A. more carefully B. more careful C. carefully D. most carefully
32. The _______ near our village is beautiful.
A. country B. woods C. view D. countryside
33. I’m _______ I can’t help you with that.
A. apologize B. afraid C. regret D. sad
34. It was really _______ this morning. I couldn’t see anything on the roads.
A. cloudy B. sunny C. icy D. foggy
35. Can you look _______ my dog while I’m away?
A. for B. at C. to D. after
36. If I’d started the work earlier I _______ it by now.
A. would finish B. had finished C. will finish D. would have finished
37. This time next year I _______ in Madrid.
A. am working B. will work C. will be working D. work
105
38 .I wish he _______ in front of our gate. It’s very annoying.
A. won’t park B. wouldn’t park C. doesn’t park D. can’t park
39. He said he’d seen her the _______ night.
A. last B. before C. previous D. earlier 40. I _______ agreed to go out. I haven’t got any money!
A. mustn’t have B. shouldn’t have C. couldn’t have D. wouldn’t have
41. It was good _______ about her recovery, wasn’t it?
A. information B. words C. news D. reports
42. I _______ the report by 5.00 p.m. You can have it then.
A. have finished B. will have finished C. finish D. am finishing
43. Because of the snow the teachers _______ all the students to go home early.
A. said B. made C. told D. demanded
44. Thanks for the meal! It was _______.
A. delighted B. delicious C. disgusting D. distasteful
45. Look! Our head teacher _______ on TV right now! A. is being interviewed B. is been interviewed C. is interviewing D. is interviewed
46. It’s _______ to drive a car over 115 km/h in the UK.
A. unlegal B. illegal C. dislegal D. legaless
47. There’s a lot of rubbish in the garden I need to get _______ of.
A. lost B. rid C. cleared D. taken
48. I’m afraid it’s time we _______.
A. leave B. must leave C. are leaving D. left 49. He wondered what _______.
A .is the time? B. the time was¨ C. was the time D. is the time?
50 They _______ our salaries by 5%.
A. rose B. made up C. raised D. lifted
106
k / Reading
I. Read the text. Levi Roots, a reggae singer from Jamaica, has a big smile on his face these days. In case you missed it, Levi recently appeared on the famous reality show for people with business ideas, Dragon’s Den. The participants have to persuade the team of business experts that their ideas are excellent and hope that two or more of the team will decide to invest money in their business idea. Levi did just that! The singer, who has been a successful music artist for several years, also sells something he calls ‘Reggae, reggae sauce’. It is made using special secret ingredients from his grandmother and is a hot Jamaican sauce that is eaten with meat. Until now it has only been possible to buy the sauce from Levi’s website or once a year at the famous Notting Hill carnival. But now, thanks to the TV program, that is all going to change! Levi presented his business idea to the team and started with a catchy reggae song about the sauce to make them sit up and listen. He certainly got their attention! He then described his plans for the sauce. This part of his presentation didn’t go so well. He made mistakes with his figures, saying that he already had an order for the sauce of 2 and a half million when in fact he meant 2 and a half thousand! But, the team were still interested and amazingly, two of the team offered to give £50,000 to the plan in exchange for 40% of the company. Mr Roots was ecstatic! Levi is even happier today. It seems that two of the biggest supermarket chains in the UK are interested in having the sauce on their shelves. In addition to this, Levi is recording the ‘Reggae, reggae sauce’ song and we will soon be able to buy or download this. ‘It’s all about putting music into food,’ says Levi with a big, big smile on his face! And music and food will probably make him a very rich man indeed! Based on the reading, answer the following:
I. Are the sentences true or false?
1. At the moment Levi isn’t very happy. ___
2. Levi sells something we can eat. ___
3. His song is a big success. ___
4. He sang his song on TV. ___
5. Some supermarkets want to sell his product. ___
II. Choose the best answers. 1. Dragon’s Den is a show about
A. Cooking. B. New business ideas. C. Famous people.
107
2. To make the sauce
A. You have to go to Notting Hill. B. You have to ask a member of Levi’s family. C. You need a good recipe book.
3. When Levi presented his idea
A. He finished with a song. B. Two and a half million people were watching. C. He talked about the wrong figures.
4. Some people on the team
A. Own supermarkets. B. Didn’t like the taste. C. Bought part of Levi’s company.
5. Today Levi
A. is a millionaire. B. has two things he can profit from. C. prefers music to food.
Writing Imagine you have just returned from a two-week holiday. Write an e-mail to your friend telling him/her about the holiday. Include information about the journey, where you stayed, what you did and the people you met. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
108
2.3 METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL RESEARCH
FORMULATION.
For this research has been considered very important refers to the different authors
that contribute to the development of communicative skills. Among these authors
are: Jeremy Harmer, Douglas Brown, Neil McLaren, Christine Nuttall from whom
researchers take their contributions for this work ,because they are considered
meaningful and very important for the development of the four skills. But after
analyze all the theory presented by the authors , it is necessary to make a
comparison between the theory and facts found in the high school , were this
research has been developed , because in that way researchers will be able to
give their own opinion and contribute to this research.To add more important
information to this research it is necessary to take into account other aspects such
as: The English syllabus used by the teacher, and the book that students use for
English class (Side by Side). Those aspects are important because they are
considered as the basis for the development of the communicative skills.
The English syllabus has been developed in order to achieve language proficiency
through the Communicative Approach, its objectives set for the preparation for life
competencies, besides, and it promotes the development of the four
communicative skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In order to reach the
development of communicative skills, it takes into account the following
competences: grammatical, sociolinguistic, strategic, and discourse; which are
closed related with the different contents that this syllabus proposes such as:
conceptual, procedural, and attitudinal.
The “Side by Side” book is based on the Communicative Approach, it takes some
aspects in order to develop the communicative skills in students, also, it promotes
the student`s participation, most of its activities lead to students to speak and
create new dialogues in which students put in practice the new vocabulary and the
grammar through the units, encourage them a good pronunciation throughout the
listening activities which also are practiced by students.
109
In fact, the English teacher takes into account the topics, strategies and activities
proposed in the book, even when they are not the proposed on the English
Syllabus. Students have three English classes a week. Generally these classes
starts with a feedback of the last class, but after that the teacher focuses in the
acquisition of vocabulary, the performance of dialogues, and reading activities, in
which students are encouraged to learn grammar and they are the center of the
class.
Even when the class is not based on the parameters of the English syllabus, the
four communicative skills are developed through the English learning process of
each unit of the book. The activities developed in order to improve communicative
skills are based on the book with the help of the English teacher`s creativity. Each
class develops at least two communicative skills, in the following way:
2.3.1 Listening Skill According to Jeremy Harmer and Neil McLaren, there are some activities that help
to develop listening comprehension, and for them the main purpose is to improve
this skill in English students. These activities are part from the two kinds of
listening; Extensive and Intensive. For extensive listening, students can choose
what they can hear, for intensive listening which is developed inside the classroom;
some of the following activities can be carried out: Reading aloud, storytelling,
interviews, and conversations.
Comparing the activities developed by eleventh grade students with the activities
proposed by authors, researchers found that from four ones mentioned before, the
second one is missing; it means that storytelling is not applied in the English
classes. On the contrary, reading aloud, conversations, and interviews are applied.
Concerning with the stages that listening is divided, which are pre listening,
listening, and post listening; in eleventh grade are applied as follows:The pre
listening is developed by the teacher before he plays the cd- player; he stars to
repeat the vocabulary with students two or three times. The listening is when
110
students listen the vocabulary and then repeat them, and also they listen some
readings two or three times , then, some students can answer questions that
teacher asks them. The post listening is showed by the physical response of
students; sometimes teacher ask to student s to do something referring to the
vocabulary, the performance of similar tasks; sometimes students perform
activities that are in the book, the active participation in a face to face conversation;
students perform conversation repeating after the CD player.
2.3.2 Reading Skill According to the theory Christine Nuttall, reading is an active skill considered to be
essential in the development of literacy, that is why some aspects are going to be
taken into account to analyze what the reading skill in students is like, some of
those aspects are: Text and discourse which allows the students to be conscious
about what for they are reading. Organizing sequence of sentences, in which
students have to identify the topic sentence of the reading.
Due to the kind of reading that students have in their books they do not care about
what they are reading, they only read the paragraph in order to look for the
information required by the book or by the teacher. Text and discourse pretends a
little connection through the reading between the writer and the reader, where the
message that writer wants to transmit will be transmitted as long as reader
understands what the writer wants to express, for that reason all the readings have
to be at the level of students, but in this case this aspect is not reached by the
group in that way, maybe because students do not have the ability to comprehend
the reading now that they are focused in answering questions only . Besides, text
and discourse takes into account that a sentence has different kinds of meanings,
which help students understand or reach the level that the writer has in readings
and they are mentioned as following: conceptual, propositional, contextual and
pragmatic.
During the readings, the conceptual meaning that is about the very meaning of a
word, is applied most of the time , because students always look in the dictionary
111
the meaning of a word in order to understand the reading, even though some of
them can be simple or complex, they try to find the closest meaning of a word.
About the propositional meaning, that refers to the meaning of a sentence in their
context, also known as signification or plain sense, students have to be able to
understand the context of the whole sentence more than the conceptual meaning
of a word. In this case students reach this when they have already translated into
Spanish the paragraph or the sentences, but even though students translate the
paragraph or the sentence into their native language , it is difficult for them to
comprehend the propositional meaning because they do not understand the
sentence or paragraph in their context now that they are led by the meaning of
every word. The contextual meaning, refers to the connection between sentences
that help to recognize the writer ´s thought, this is often achieved in the readings,
because they emphasize in translating sentences and in this way they reach the
connection between sentences and after that they answer questions that teacher
gives them and this let them to recognize some writer´s thought. And the last one
is the pragmatic meaning, which refers to the interaction between writer and
reader through the writing , here the feelings and attitudes are set down on the
text, for most of the students it is difficult to understand the pragmatic meaning of
a paragraph because the way that they use to understand the paragraph is not the
correct, but when they have read the paragraph many times , some of them reach
the connection with the writers and is in this stage that they start to answer in a
good way some question made by the teacher.
Concerning to organizing sequence of sentences, it can be say that , most of the
main ideas of a paragraph are placed at the beginning or at the end of a paragraph
, but most of the students cannot identify them until they have already read the
paragraph several times. Besides, they always need to see the translation into
Spanish that they do in order to understand and find the logical sequence of
sentences.
Now, based on the reading theory, which states that learners have to adapt to new
implementations during the learning process, because they are accustomed to
112
read in their native language, some aspects like orthography, vocabulary , and
syntax change during this process, it can be said that most of the students face
this problem because they do not have enough knowledge about how
orthography, syntax and vocabulary work in the target language, for that reason
they always look up words in their dictionaries to get the meaning of a text.It
means that they reach the understanding of a text throughout the looking of words
in their dictionaries, and when they know the meaning of the words little by little
they understand how these elements work in the English language.
According to Christine Nuttall, reading is interactive because readers have to
perform a number of tasks during the process to understand written texts which
are: Decode, interpret, and understand. The first one, decode, where the message
is recognized by written signs depends on the level of the readers and the level of
the reading, since both have to be equal, in this task they have to recognize at
least some English words in the reading, which in some cases they know in a
general way what is the reading about, because when teacher asks them about it
they answer coherently, even though the answers are based in their translations
that always they do. But it is important to mention that students do not reach at
all this task, because even the level of readings are according to the level
requested by the Mined , students show that their level is lower as the requested
for them, therefore, they do not decode every reading in a successful way.
The second one, Interpret, here the task is for readers, because they have to
interpret the message, and without any doubt, they do it, but always based on their
translations, because they do not try to understand the text, although is a little
difficult for them because they get it in Spanish not in English, as an example we
can say the following: When the teacher asks for the text they have in their desks
the notebooks where they have their translations, and also the book in order to
follow what the teacher is doing or saying.
113
The last one is understand, this task is achieved by students, always following the
same way, and they show that they understand when they answer question about
the reading in their books using their translations.
Other elements taken into account by Christine Nuttall are the top-down and
bottom-up processing which are used when someone is reading. The bottom-up
processing refers to the recognition of words with the goal to increase their
vocabulary, and also to know the grammatical structure, but always taking into
account the reader´s knowledge about the topic. The top- down processing refers
to put in practice their background knowledge about the topic and also that
students try to understand the message in a general way.
Now, during the observation of classes, students put in practice the bottom-up
processing, because they look for increasing their vocabulary in each unit, and
there are some words that they have to learn and put in practice during the
development of the lesson, besides, they use in every unit a different grammatical
structure that also they have to study in readings. Concerning with the top-down
processing that needs the student´s background knowledge, is not developed
inside the classes because they always try to understand details, it means word by
word, and never try to get a general idea of a paragraph.
The top-down processing is related with the schema theory that according to Neil
McLaren is the knowledge organized or stored in the reader´s mind, now that those
help to readers have a successful reading, and also this schemata can be
classified as following: Linguistic schemata, content schemata and formal
schemata. The first one, Linguistic schemata, refers to the previous knowledge
about vocabulary and grammar which students have, this part of the top down
processing is tried to be activated by the teacher through the development of each
class because it is supposed that they have a basis of the language but sometimes
students reach the activation of their linguistic schemata and sometimes they do
not reach it, maybe because they do not have linguistic schemata. The second
one, content schemata, refers to the student´s previous knowledge about the
114
world, cultures and so on, which let students to participate in the reading , some of
the students have a lot of knowledge about some topic, and this helps to do the
class active when they are reading , but the problems are that they are
accustomed to translate everything and they waste time doing that, but also some
of them show lack of interest during the reading because they have little or no
backgrounds about the topic or even they know they cannot express what they
know, that is why this classification is not developed in a good way in classes. And
the last one is the formal schemata, which refers to how to readings are
organized, taking into account main ideas , supporting details, which are getting
using the top –down processing , but as the content schemata is not developed
and it can be said that this is due to the background knowledge that they did not
base in a good way during the last few years that they have been learning the
English language.
Now it is important to mention how the teacher activates the schemata theory in
their students. According to Douglas Brown there are two ways to activate
schemata in students: presupposition and prediction. The presupposition refers to
the previous knowledge, the own experience and the way to relate that knowledge
with the reading. Some of the students have a great deal of knowledge about some
topics, and this situation allows that those students participate more than others.
The teacher starts asking about the topic presented in the reading and some of
them share their experiences but in Spanish and then the teacher translates into
English. Most of them activate their schemata but do not share their experiences
because of the lack of interest that they show to the class. Concerning with the
prediction that refers to the association of reading with the previous knowledge but
this in an individual way, the students think about how they can interpret the text
easily or make sense of sentences. In this students focus on vocabulary and
grammar in order to understand the text, after that they share ideas among their
partners.
According to Christine Nuttall it is convenient to assume that readers use different
skills to make sense of different features of a text and skills have to work together
115
with other skills, that is why they are divided into two groups , the first one is word
attack skill and the second one is text attack skills. In word attack skills the
interpretation of structural clues that is composed by the grammatical function and
morphology are included. Concerning to the grammatical function the author states
that readers have to identify the grammatical categories even though they cannot
explain how they do it. This word attack skill is developed in an acceptable way in
class, because teacher explains the grammar in front of the class and they identify
some of the grammatical categories presented in the reading. They usually change
the word in the grammatical categories and this helps in order to increase their
vocabulary and also know the category of words. This activity is considered a
useful exercise in order to develop this skill.
About morphology, Christine Nuttall states that it helps to attack skills when
readers put in practice the use of affixes and compound words that help to get the
real meaning of a sentence. But this skill is not developed in class because the
students do not care about how words are formed they always look in the
dictionary and do not invest time in studying this kind of structural clues.
Another word attack skill described by Nuttall is inference from context, here the
students have to learn words in the context without the help of the dictionary and
the words can be learned in the same way that students apply in their conversation
with other persons. But during the development of classes, students use some
words in their conversations about the class but always taking into account the
exact Spanish meaning of words.
There are other word attack skills that Nutall describes, which are not developed in
classes but can be favorable so that the students can improve their reading, they
are: Learning to use inference, in which students can use sentence with nonsense
words and then look for the correct one, using the words that are in the context;
also students can complete a sentence with a range of words for this they have to
choose the best option in order to complete the sentence. The other word attack
skill is recipes for exercise which nonsense words has to be changed by real
116
words, here, students have to supply short texts with a nonsense word, always
taking into account the vocabulary studied in the lesson.
The second group is text attack skill which is divided into two groups. The first one
is plain sense and the second one is understanding discourse. In the plain sense,
the bottom-up strategies included are: understanding syntax, recognizing and
interpreting cohesive devices and interpreting discourse markers. The
understanding syntax, according to Nutall, can be practiced by predicting how the
paragraph fits into wider text using previous knowledge, trying to summarize the
reading, underlying new words, identifying gaps in the message. This skill is
applied inside the classroom in the following way: students study a lot grammar,
during the class they re-read sentences, in which the grammar studied is applied,
they underline new words and quickly they look them up in the dictionary, they
never try to summarize what reading is about, therefore it can be said that the skill
is developed but not in the way the author recommends.
The second text attack skill is recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices, which
includes pro – form, ellipsis or lexical cohesion. The first one is interpreting pro
forms, which consists of those words that the writers use in order to avoid needless
repetition on the sentences, such as it, our, those then, one. During the class
students read the paragraph and sometimes the teacher asks about these pro-
forms during the reading, then students try to answer but they show some
problems during their explanation of that. The second one refers to interpreting
elliptical expressions, which has two stages; the first stage is presenting examples
in which students can answer questions like: how many things? Who?, Tell me
something about.?; and the second stage is to omit words that represent the same
part of speech, for instance verbs, adjectives, nouns .In fact, there are some
activities that students and teacher do in order to develop this skill, for the first
stage, students answer the activities presented after the reading, there are always
questions referring to the reading that help to know if the students had understood
it, sometimes they work in group, sometimes alone, and then they answer those
questions to the teacher. The second stage is practiced in a different way as it is
117
mentioned by Nuttall, because they do not omit words , they do exercises in which
they change the part of the speech in sentences, using the vocabulary that they
have studied before.
Interpreting discourse markers is another text attack skills, that according to Nuttall,
the way to develop this skills is supplying a text with markers omitted and replaced
by gaps, in which teacher gives to students a list of markers presented and studied
before this task and present them an exercise with multiple choice. Also teacher
can supply a text with the gap left empty where students can think about the
markers that belong into the text .Now teacher applies these kinds of activities
during quizzes or exams, most of the exams are presented in that way but during
reading none of these activities are developed.
Concerning understanding discourse, that is part of the text attack skills, and refers
to the contextual meaning and the pragmatic meaning of individual sentence of a
text and the way to combine with other sentences, Nuttall states that in this section
students have to develop the following skills: Recognizing functional value,
recognizing text organization, recognizing the presupposition underlying the text,
recognizing implications and making inferences and predictions. Among these
skills presented in understanding discourse students identify what reading is about,
interpreting the reading contextual and pragmatic meaning of individual sentences
and its combination among sentences in order to produce a coherent message.
Concerning the recognizing functional value, Nutall makes a relation between
contextual and pragmatic meaning in which a sentence can be multifunctional
depending on the context the sentences is. This skill is not developed by students
because it is difficult for them to grasp different meanings to a sentence because
they only follow the meaning that they get from the translation.
About the other skill, recognizing text organization, which refers to how the texts
are organized and see how ideas hang together, according to Nutall this, can be
developed as follows: Through organization of a paragraph into text where
students can work on a sequence of paragraphs, identifying an opening or
118
concluding paragraph. These kinds of activities are not developed inside the
classroom, teacher and students never look for identifying what kind of paragraph
they have read, they only look for understanding the vocabulary and the grammar
used in it.
About Recognizing presuppositions, implication and making inferences, Nutall
states that these skills help to understand the text. Presuppositions are divided into
two groups, the first one, the knowledge and experience that the writer expects the
reader to have and the opinions, attitudes and emotions that the writer expect the
reader share or at least understand. Sometimes after students read many times
the paragraph they start to share some opinions and experiences about the
readings, even though they have difficulties when they try to develop this skill.
The other skill that students have to develop according to Nuttall is implications
and making inference, where students have their own conclusions from facts and
point an argument, inside the classroom this kind of skill is not developed as it is
hoped but some of students try to have their own argument about the readings but
this is achieved after many times that students have read the text.
Summing up all the skills described and developed in classes are included either,
in intensive or extensive reading. The intensive reading is developed in classes so
that the students increase their vocabulary throughout the reading and also
grammar is applied in all the readings that they practice, the students and the
teacher pay more attention in these areas, this means that they master a lot of
grammar and vocabulary but it is not the same about the comprehension of texts,
because they have some problems about understanding ideas in a paragraph, and
this happens when they have extensive reading.
2.3.3 Speaking Skill The other communicative skill that students have to develop is speaking.
According to McLaren such skill is one of the most difficult ones language learners
have to cope with. Jeremy Harmer states that the main purpose of this skill is
119
conversation. It means that the process of acquisition of this skill is larger than the
other skills. Jeremy Harmer presents some language features which are necessary
for the speaking production: the first one is connected speech, this refers to the
ability that a speaker has in order to articulate the sounds of speach fluently, for
instance the sound of some words in contracted forms. It was observed during
classes, that the teacher paid attention to the pronunciation of students, most of
the students try to use the contracted form when they speak not only with verb to
be but also with other auxiliary verbs that it is possible to use the contracted form.
Another language feature is expressive devices which is used in face to face
interaction and this refers to the speed, volume , expression of emotions and the
intensity that students during dialogue roleplaying face many problems with that
because they do not show fluency when they are speaking in front of the class, but
one important thing here is that they try to do it very well and they use a good
volume, expression of emotions and good intensity, sometimes they have
meetings outside the classroom in order to practice what they are going to say
and it is in that way that they reach some of those aspects were achieved.
Lexis and grammar is another language feature, here the students are involved in
specific speaking context, like telephone conversation, job interviews, in which the
teacher supplies a variety of sentences for different functions such agreeing,
expressing surprises, etc. These activities are developed inside the classroom
because most of the conversations that are in the book refer to this kind of topics in
which the students have to change some parts of speech, they work on it as a
whole class because teacher says what the word that they are going to change is
and then they start to answering with the words selected by them, it can be said
that this becomes oral repetition of dialogues but changing the words they want.
The negotiation of language is closely related with this, the only difference is that
in it they negotiate what statement or questions they want to say during the activity
in order to understand what they are saying. The teacher applies this kind of
language feature and the way that they use it is interesting because he asks the
students for a sentence in Spanish and then he translates it into English then, they
120
use it in a dialogue, and in that way students know perfectly what they are saying
in the dialogue.
The other element of speaking is mental or social processing which includes the
language processing, interactive with others, and information processing. The
language processing, refers to the use of words or sentences that they need in
order to say something with the purpose of sharing a comprehensible idea. Inside
the classroom students try to do this looking for words that they need to say
something, most of the time the teacher is a translator for them because they ask
for phrases or words that they need for their own dialogues which most of the time
are developed by students in front of the class and it is in this part that interacting
with others is achieved and that is the second element of metal processing. The
third element is information processing and it refers to the way the information is
processed, it can be quickly or slowly, depending on the students. In this part most
of the students perform the dialogues in an acceptable way because they practiced
many times, but some of them seemed uncomfortable when they were performing
those dialogues, maybe because they did not give them enough time for practicing.
Jeremy Harmer presents different activities to face situations in which students feel
stressed because they do not construct sentences using the correct expression or
the exact words, maybe because they have difficulties in areas like syntax,
vocabulary and morphology; some of these activities are presented below and can
be developed in the classroom:
• Acting from a script: This refers to the performing of dialogues in front of the
class based on the course books or dialogues written by them. During the
observation , most of the students practice this activity, the book presents
exercises in which they have to change some vocabulary and also the
grammar that they have studied, so they write all the dialogues in their
notebooks and after that they choose one dialogue and then they present
it in front of the class, everybody passes in front of the class, but few of
them do not show interest in order to learn the dialogues, the teacher
121
evaluates this activity like a quiz , so this activity is developed in a good
way, and they practice syntax and vocabulary.
Communication Games: this refers to the performance of games inside the
classroom where students have to practice the language in order to get
fluency; Jeremy Harmer presents some games like: twenty questions and
just a minute. But inside the classroom there are no games in order to
encourage students to practice the language, simply teacher and students
practice the dialogue without worries of improving their fluency.
• Questionnaires: Jeremy Harmer presents this activity with the goal of
improving grammar and vocabulary, making questionnaires about a specific
topic, but this activity is not developed inside the classroom, they do not do
this kind of activities even though it can help to improving their speaking
skill.
• Prepared talks: In this activity students have to make a presentation on a
topic of their own choice or they can use the questionnaire as a basis in
order to prepare talks. This activity is not developed inside the classroom
because they focus only in practicing the dialogues presented in their
course books and the ones made by them.
• Discussion: About this one, Jeremy Harmer states that it can be generated
from the questionnaires and talks, but neither questionnaires nor talks are
developed inside the classroom, consequently this activity is not developed
either
• Simulation and role play: Jeremy Harmer states that it can be used to
encourage general oral fluency, or to train students for specific situations of
real life. Inside the classroom the teacher and the students do this kind of
activities for training on situations of real life, sometimes the dialogues that
they write in their notebooks are presented in front of the class but they
122
take into account some characteristic that Jeremy Harmer proposes in
order to develop in a good way, they are :
o Reality of function: Students have to act as a real participant of the
situation that they are representing in that moment. They bring
different kinds of customs and act as the people involved in the
dialogue; some of them perform naturally, but for others it seemed to
be difficult.
o A simulated environment: teacher and students have to think or
create the right environment inside the classroom, as if the place is
real in that moment. This is closed related with the first one because
students prepare material that they need for the drama that they are
going to perform in front of the class.
According to Neil McLaren and other authors, the spoken language is divided into
two groups, depending on their purpose: Productive dimension, in which students
have the opportunity to study before, studying the context, with the following factor
that affect them , for instance; linguistic, all kind of linguistic problems that speaker
has to face in every situation, as well as whatever psychological and cognitive
problems that affect them during the process of speaking due to the correction that
teacher could make to them. The other one is interactive dimension, it refers to
communication, in which speakers tend to repeat the pattern of their messages,
and it can be as information routine or interaction routines. In the information
routine can be news, broadcast, lectures, and so on. And in the interaction routines
can be interviews, conversations, telephone conversations, and so on.
But as it is well known this research looks for the development of the skill for
communicative purposes, without taking into account the way that they can reach
it. It is considered that they make a combination of all the elements mentioned
before. It means that they use the productive dimension because they have been
studying what they were going to speak, for example, vocabulary, therefore they
have the linguistics problems when they try to use the grammar studied, and also
123
the psychological and cognitive problems when they are performing the
pronunciation of the vocabulary or the grammar and teacher corrects them.
For the interactive dimension, the interaction routine is more applied than
information routine, but taking into account that the information they share is
according to the exercises developed in their books, in which interviews,
conversations are developed using the grammar and the vocabulary that they have
studied.
2.3.4 Writing Skill In this communicative skill it is supposed that students are able to generate ideas,
organize them coherently, use discourse markers and rhetorical conventions to put
them cohesively into written text, revise text for clear meaning, edit text for
appropriate grammar, and produce a final product. Through the process of learning
a new language all those competencies have been developed step by step,
because it is impossible that they can be developed in a short time.
In this case, the students have had four previous years in order to develop the
competencies mentioned before, but in the observation made, all of those
competencies were not developed as it is supposed or they were not applied
correctly. For example, if students work in the writing skill they do not generate
ideas from their minds, they only rewrite sentences from the book using different
vocabulary, they are not able to identify if a text is well organized of it is used
discourse markers and rhetorical conventions.
Concerning with edition of a text for appropriate grammar the students can just edit
spelling, because through constant practice of writing of vocabulary used in
lessons they have excellent spelling and they can identify the tense of the verbs
used in the sentences, but they cannot organize them coherently in the same tense
to write a paragraph. Summing up, this skill is based only in the rewriting of
vocabulary and the substitution of words in texts; therefore students are not able to
124
produce texts by themselves, using their own ideas or for expressing their feelings
with communicative goals.
2.3.5 Communicative competences
Concerning competences, the Ministry of Education requires the development of
them because they are additional tools that teacher can use in order to develop the
skills in students, these competences are:
a. Grammatical competence:
For this competence there are five important elements that have to be developed.
• Morphology: that refers to the study of the structure of words in a
language that means that in this case students have to be able to
analyze the composition of a word including its inflections and
derivations. But in the observation carried out in the English class the
development of this element of this competence was not observed.
• Syntax: it deals with the ordering and relationship between words and
other structural elements in phrases and sentences, in this case the
teacher explained to the students through examples in the board the
correct way of syntax in each tense.
• Lexis: it concerns about the vocabulary that students acquire through the
learning process, this element of the grammatical competence is
developed in the students observed because when every unit of the
book start there is a list of vocabulary that students have to use during
the whole unit for instance, they acquire new lexis in every unit and they
continuing put it in practice in next lessons.
• Phonology: deals with the system or pattern of speech sounds used in a
particular language, in other words it is about the correct pronunciation of
words, knowing the symbols that represent the sounds of the words in
the English language, in this case phonology is thought just when the
125
teacher pronounces the words trying to teach students the correct
pronunciation of words but there is not an special time in class where
teacher explains about how to know the correct pronunciation just
looking it in the dictionary.
• Orthography: is about the study of established correct spelling, the
teacher cares about this part, he always corrects students in spelling but
he does not pay attention about the diacritic symbols in students writing.
b. Sociolinguistic competence
According with Neil McLaren this competence is concerned with the
“appropriateness of communication depending on the context including the
participants and the rules for interaction”, besides that it has to be related with
cultural aspects too. In this sense, classes’ observation showed that the teacher
focused parts of the lessons in order to talk about cultural aspects, in the book Side
by Side there are special reports about culture of many countries around the world.
The teacher in this part explains to students about it and they participate talking
about what they know about the cultural topic that they are studying. Besides,
teacher explains to students the language differences among our culture and
others and how they have to be careful about what they want to say and in which
way when they talk to people from other country.
c. Strategic competence
The goal for this competence is to produce oral discourse in a conversation to
exchange general and specific information on various topics, for this, teacher has
clear two points necessaries to be developed and they are:Oral discourse: teacher
encourages students to speak with confidence about any topic in discussion.
Exchange of general and specific information: the production of the oral discourse
has to have a purpose for that reason the teacher prepares some questions about
the topic in discussion in order to give the students something to talk about with
sense and without lose control of the class.
126
2.4 THEORETICAL DEFINITON AND DEVELOPMENT The researchers believe that most of the English teachers use different methods in
order to achieve the development of skills in order to learn any language; it means
that they do not only have to use the communicative approach even though this is
the suggested method by the MINED. Teachers should use the method that is
most appropriate for their students’ needs and characteristics in order to efficiently
and effectively develop the four skills. That is why; the different ways students can
develop those skills are presented here.
Based on what it was found regarding the acquisition and enhance of the
speaking, listening, reading and writing skills of English by the students in section
2-A at the Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán and the theoretical
backgrounds concerning the same issue , the researches consider that the four
skills have to be developed in every lesson, and it is the teacher who decides
which skill to develop first, second, third or fourth, taking into account the activities
presented previously.
For listening skill, researchers consider that it is necessary to put into practice
more extensive listening through different activities; for example, to invite a native
speaker to the class or somebody else that speaks English fluently, to play a song
or to watch a movie, and not only restrict students to listen to the teacher’s
speaking; for intensive listening the variety of activities is a good option too. Even
though students do not show so many problems in this skill it is important to
expose them to constant listening practice. Also it is important to encourage
students to develop the micro skills of the listening skill, for example, help students
to recognize reduce forms of words, and identify pauses, errors, and corrections.
Regarding the second skill, reading, the researchers consider that this skill
demands a lot of practice from both; teacher and students, because in this skill
they show lack of interest and also they do not practice it enough; and it is through
reading that students can reinforce other skills and competences; for example
grammar, lexis, cultural elements, etc. When reading is applied in class the first
127
important thing is that students need to have clear the purpose of the reading,
besides in order to engage students in the practice of reading, the teacher has to
provide them with extra reading selections and not only the short paragraphs in the
book that they use. Those readings have to be easy at first, so that students
understand and get excited because they understand what they are reading, then,
gradually the difficulty of the reading has to be increased.
The second thing that is very important is the way the teacher and students
process reading exercises, as it is well known, there are two processes ; bottom-
up and top-down, which help the readers to look for general and specific
information, through the bottom-up processing, students can recognize letters and
words in English and also grammatical structures. This processing could be
developed before the reading with the teacher’s help, giving students vocabulary
referred only to the reading in order to look for the meaning of words; this
processing help the students to understand the text without translating of the
paragraph. the top-down processing is recommended to be used when students
have managed the vocabulary of the text, hence in that way they are going to feel
comfortable with the reading, because in that point students can understand what
the reading is about, use their background knowledge and give their contribution
about what they have read.
The reading skill is divided in two groups, word attack skills and text attack skills;
researchers consider that for the students it is important to develop the word
attack skills first, because is through this group that they start to get along with the
language, interpreting structural clues using the grammatical function and
morphology. A good way to identify the grammatical function is underlying it in a
text; change the grammatical category that is in an exercise that they already use
when they are reading. About morphology the teacher has to give the students
exercises with compound words to get the meaning without a dictionary, using their
knowledge about it.
128
Other word attack skill is inference from context, in which students have to learn
words by the context without the dictionary, for that, the teacher can provide the
students with sentences that have the same word in common but in different
context, which are comprehensible for them, after that he provides them with
exercises using other words in different contexts, and in that way they have the
chance to understand words in English that have different meanings according to
the context.Learning to use inference is another word attack skill , for this the
teacher can provide the students with scrambled sentences in which they have the
chance to practice using words, they are familiar with, because the book used in
classes does not contain this kind of exercises that help to improve this skill.
Now, concerning with text attack skills, researches consider that the students and
the teacher in section 2-A at the Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán
have to work very hard in this area, because, though they master them than
extend, they have to work harder to develop them as expected. About the
understanding syntax that is the first text attack skill, it is very important that
students underline new words, identify the message, and summarize the reading;
activities that are necessary for understanding syntax. At this step the teacher can
fuse the reading and the speaking skills practice, asking students to verify what
they understand about the text, and the students can use the words that they
underline before, avoiding the use of the dictionary, now that they are accustomed
to use it for everything that they need to know.
Recognizing and interpreting cohesive devices is the other text attack skill which
include pro- forms, and ellipsis. It is important that students know about the pro-
forms, which let them understand those words that sometimes do not make sense
in the sentence for them, but those words are very important because they avoid
needless repetition in the sentences. The teacher can explain how to use these
kinds of words and provide reading with this kind of exercises; he can ask the
students what word refers to the pro form that is in the text and through the
practice they can improve this skill.
129
Researches recommend to the English teacher at section 2-A at the Instituto
Nacional General Francisco Morazán practice intensive and extensive reading with
students, in which they can develop most of the skills mentioned before, the
practice of this kind of reading let students understand the text clearly, because
through this they can look for specific information without the necessity of looking
up every word that they do not understand in the dictionary and also they can learn
how to identify the topic, the main idea and supporting details in the reading
selection, which are reached through the practice and with the help of the teacher.
Researches recommend avoiding the use of bilingual dictionary in order to
translate into Spanish during the readings, because this do not let to students
understand in English the message of the reading.
Concerning with the speaking skill, researchers recommend to the teacher look for
chances where students can practice the language because most of them have
good pronunciation, the problem here is that they do not practice with
communicative goals; they only repeat what the teacher asks them to. In order to
solve this situation, researchers consider that teacher can apply some language
features like: expressive devices in which students can get rid of shyness in order
to express the emotions or ideas that the dialogues need and also to give the
intensity of it. Another language feature that is important to apply is negotiation of
language where they can use whatever word or sentences they need in order to
say something, but students have to be sure about the words that they use in the
conversation, it means that they have to present the conversation written by them
to the teacher for checking out the new words.
There are some activities that help the students to improve the speaking skill with
communicative goals which researchers considered necessary to put in practice
inside the classroom, even though the acting from a script is putting in practice
most of the time in the classroom, researchers recommend that the students
memorize the dialogues and do not use notes for performing them very well, in this
way they can apply words that they memorize in other conversations.
130
Throughout the memorization of some dialogues, they can extract some words that
they can use for some games; like twenty questions and just a minute, that help to
student to get fluency. Teacher can organize a game once in a while in order to
change the dynamic of classes, these kinds of activities encourage the student to
participate more in classes, the teacher can ask for the questions to the students
and they can practice before developing the game. About the game named just a
minute, students can prepare a very short talk that takes a minute, that concerns
with personal information or experiences that are related with the lesson that they
have practiced, but it is important that students practice many times the exercises
in order to have successful results.
From the two games developed before, teacher can have advantages, because
they are based on the other activities that help to develop the skill like
questionnaires, prepared talks, and discussions, which can be developed by
students at least once a month, grouping two or three lessons in order to make a
good discussion among groups of students, using the information that they already
have about the topic. The teacher can help to the students to design
questionnaires, talks and discussion using the grammar and vocabulary that they
already master, and also to look for other words that they think are necessary for
some of the activities. The most important is to encourage students to participate
and memorize conversations, because it helps them to improve the speaking skill,
and also that the students as well as the teacher avoid using Spanish during
classes. The teacher needs to help the students develop the required self-
confidence at speaking since self-confidence is a very important factor to develop
the speaking skill.
The last skill that researches consider that is so necessary to develop is writing,
due to the lack of practice in this skill, students are not able to write a paragraph
where they can express something about an specific topic. Consequently
researches think that it is better that the teacher implement some activities in order
to develop this skill. One way is through the reading, it means that some of the
activities that they develop in reading can be completed with writing, for this skill it
131
is necessary that students have a lot of vocabulary that is why students need to
know by heart the words that they have studied. Researchers think that the course
book that they use have enough exercises for writing in order to be practiced by
students , therefore, researches consider that this is another instrument in order to
develop this skill. Even though this skill is difficult to develop if teacher monitors
very well their performance they can get successful result.
Most of the exercises presented in the book are related with the vocabulary and
the grammatical rules that they have studied during the lessons, so writing can be
less difficult if the teacher presents three stages in order to do it. The three stages
presented here are: pre- writing, drafting and revising. Now it is important to
mention that during this process it is recommended that the teacher accompany
students and try do not leave them alone in order to reach good results.
Beginning with pre- writing it is necessary that students have information about
what they are going to write and with this information they can do a brainstorming
in which students can write whatever thing related with the topic that comes to their
mind, making a list of these ideas, after that students go over the list to evaluate
what they have written and cross the ideas that do not fit for them. Also the teacher
can teach the students to write whatever thing that comes to their minds related
with the topic without worrying about grammar, spelling and punctuation, which is
called free writing.
The last stage is drafting in which students start to write with the ideas that they
wrote in the brainstorming or in the free writing, take into account in the stage the
spelling, punctuation and grammar, and this can be done as many as the students
or the teacher consider necessary and the teacher has to check the students`drafts
as many times as needed in order to have a good final work. Even this activity is so
hard for the teacher; the results can be successful at the end of it that is why
researchers recommend starting with a short paragraph of about ten lines.
132
CHAPTER III OPERATIVE FRAMEWORK.
3.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE SUBJECT FOR THE RESEARCH
This research intended to study the development of the communicative skills in
eleventh grade students of section “A” of the Instituto Nacional General Francisco
Morazán, during the year 2010, In this section there were 40 students between
fifteen and eighteen years old. Most of the students come from low class families
and studied in public schools where, for some of them, the English teaching
classes were not significative. At the Institute they received E nglish classes two
days per week; on Wednesdays from 2:45 to 3:30 p.m. and on Fridays from 4:30 to
6:00 p.m. In order to have an idea about how much students manage the English
language, researchers applied a diagnostic test in which the four skills (listening,
reading, speaking and writing) were evaluated. According with the results of this
instrument, students showed a better management of the listening skill than the
others, during the observation of the classes it was realized that they devoted more
time to practicing the speaking and listening skills. On the contrary, reading and
writing practices were not well oriented in order to improve them.
During the process of the observation, students practiced different activities that
helped them to improve speaking and listening skills. Even though reading and
writing were not well oriented for communicative goals, they practiced them in
order to develop some grammatical skills that help students for the speaking and
listening skills.
Through class observation it was realized that there were students that showed
interest to learn and others that did not show any interest in the activities being
developed by the teacher that is why in some cases the objectives of the class
were not achieved.
133
Also during the observation of the development of the skills, there were some
micro skills that there were developed like: Recognize reduced forms of words and
recognize that particular meaning maybe expressed in different grammatical forms,
those were for listening skill. About the reading skill, the micro skills developed
were: Understanding syntax, recognizing and interpreting, interpreting discourse
markers and recognizing text organization. For speaking skills, some micro skills
that researchers observed during the classes were: Produce reduced forms of
words phrases, produce chunk of language on different lengths, and monitor their
oral production. And for writing skills were: Use an acceptable grammatical system
and produce graphemes and orthographic patters of English
3.2 PROCEDURES FOR GATHERING DATA
In order to collect the most objective information, researchers considered to apply
two diferent kinds of procedures for gathering data: observation and application of
a final achivement test, for those procedures the three instruments made were
used.
The first thing that was done at the beginning of the research was to ask
permission to the principal at the School to do the investigation there. Secondly we
asked the teacher in charge of the English classes for second year, section A, in
order to observe the development of the classes. Having his permission the class
observation was done from june to october 2010, Wednesdays and Fridays
afternoons.
After that researchers started observing classes since june three times per week
until october, this observation allows researchers to write a journal in which a
description of the English class observed is registered.
Besides the journal, during the observation of classes two check lists of proficiency
levels taken from www.actfl.org, were filled. Those check lists were checked
134
according to the activities developed by students. These procedured was applied
from august to october in each class observed during those months.
On october the second procedure was done, the application of the final achivement
test, it was applied in two days. In the first day students answered two parts of the
exam: grammar and reading part, for this activity the time used was two hours in
the afternoon.
The second day the other two parts of the exam were done, listening and
speaking, this part last the whole schedule of the afternoon, because of the
personal interviews made to 40 studednts .
For the application of the instruments and the observation of classes the difficulty
found by researchers was the suspension of classes sometimes because of
celebrations of the school or extracurricular activities and sometimes because
situations that can not be cotrolled as weather and transportation strike.
Even the observed classes gave to researchers the necessary information to reach
the objectives of this research, it is considered as a limitant the suspension of
classes.
3.3. SPECIFICATION OF THE TECHNIQUE TO THE DATA ANALYSIS
Due to the kind of information presented in this reearch , there were used two
techniques; descriptive and analytic, because the first and the second instruments
were designed with the purpose to describe how students manage the language
and also describe the level of students according to the characteristics observed in
students. And the last instrument was analized in order to know the most
communicative skill developed in students.
The first instrument was implemented during the whole observation, and that was a
journal, in the journal there is a description of the classes observed. Here it is
135
mentioned how the teacher developed the communicative skills in each class and
how students behaved or responded. Through this instrument researchers had a
detailed view of activities developed in classes and made a better comparison with
the theory to have a objective analysis.
The second instruments applied in observation of classes were the observation
check lists, in these instruments, researchers place students in the level that they
are at the end of the schoolar year, but taking in account the characeristics for
every skill.With these instruments researches reach the objective proposed that is
to identify the outcome level of the macro and micro skills or communicating in
English among students. This observation were analized one by one, taking into
account which of the characteristics mentioned in them were achieved by
students, and in that way were presented the analisys of the results.
The third instrument is the final achievement test, through this instrument
researchers intended to get an answer to the question about which is the macro
and the micro skill most developed by students at the end of the scholar year,
2010. It is important to mention that the level of difficulty of this test is according
with the level suggested by the MINED, which means that is harder than the
diagnostic test applied at the beginning of this research. This test was divided
according with the four communicative skills, the first part was for listening which
had three parts, the first part had six items, the second part had ten items and the
third one had five items, after listening part there was a part for grammar and
vocabulary considered as an important part of writing skill, this part of grammar
contained fifty items about different vocabulary and grammar according with the
level that students at this grade were supposed to achieve, then the reading part
came, for this part there was a reading of three paragraphs, followed by a part of
true or false with five items, and a part of choosing the best answer, both parts
were based on the previous reading presented; finally there was a writing part,
here students had to imagine that they have returned from a two week holiday and
they were going to write an email to a friend telling her/him about the holiday,
including information about the journey, where they stayed, what they did and
136
people they met, this paragraph had to contain at least ten lines and it had to
mention all the information requested in the instructions. For speaking, students
had an interview with the researchers; the interview had ten questions about
personal information, likes and dislikes and future plans they have, this interview
took about 10 to 15 minutes for students.
The final achivement test was checked by researchers folloing a rubric presented
in the test. And it was analized skill by skill. Taking into account all the items of
every skill as a 100% in order to analized how much students manage the skill.
3.3.1 DATA ANALYSIS
JOURNAL
MONTH DATE AND TOPICS DESCRIPTION OF THE OBSERVATION OF THE CLASS
JULY Present Perfect Continuos Tense(21st)
Teacher encourages students to pronounce the vocabulary.
Teacher plays the cd, then students repeat; they do this for about five minutes.
Teacher explains the use of preposition “ for and since”
AUGUST
Present Perfect Continuous Tense (11th)
Teacher starts the review with the role play technique, using the vocabulary that they have already studied.
Students work in pairs completing the dialogue with their own information and perform the dialogue in front of the class.
AUGUST How did you learn to swim so well(27th)
Teacher encourage to students to practice the dialogue.
Teacher explains the grammar with some examples.
Students perform the dialogues using the vocabulary that they have learned.
AUGUST There´s nothing to be nervous about! (31ST)
Teacher practices the dialogue with students.
Teacher asks to students to write the dialogues, changing the vocabulary of the lesson.Teacher write question on the board in order to do an interview among them.
137
ANALYSIS
Through the information gotten in the journal it can be realized that not all the
communicative skills are developed in a good way. Most of the classes are
emphazise in speaking and listening and students show more confidence in those
skills. Now that students are always encouraged to pass in front of the class in
order to role play dialogues that are in the book. On the other hand , writing and
reading skills are practiced just sometimes and those are not deal for
communicative purposes, because students only look for answers in reading part,
and they write in order to change the vocabulary, and it helps them to increase
lexis and develop the spelling sub-skill.
138
OBSERVATION CHECK LISTS
UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR EDUCATION FACULTY
THE COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS DEVELOPED BY ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS, SECTION “A”, FROM INSTITUTO NACIONAL GENERAL FRANCISCO MORAZAN, SAN SALVADOR 2010-
2011.
OBJECTIVE: To identify the outcome level of the macro and micro skills for communicating in English among eleventh grade students, at Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán, at the end of the school year, 2010.
PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES OF LANGUAGE SKILLS
NOVICE LEVEL
LEVEL LISTENING CHECK READING CHECK SPEAKING CHECK WRITING CHECK
Novice Low
Limited understanding of isolated words
Able to identify isolated words and major phrases
Able to produce isolated words.
Able to copy and produce the basic strokes. 5
Novice Mid
Able to understand some short utterances.
Can identify and incresing number of highly contextualized words and phrases.
vocabulary sufficiente to handing simple elementary needs and expresing basic courtesies.
Able to copy and transcribe familiar words or phrases and reproduce some from memory. 27
Comprehend words and phrases from simple question statement high frequency commands and courtesy.
Able to recognize the symbols of and alphabetic and syllabic writing system
Speaker is understood with great difficulty.
Novice High
Able to understand short learned utterances and some sentences lenght utterances. 7
Can read for instructional and directional purposes standarize messages phrases or expressions. 22
Able to partially exchange by relying heavily on learned utterances. 2
Able to write simple fixed expressions and limited memorized material 6
Able to derive meaning from material 22
Can ask questions or make statements involving learned material. 2
Can write names, numers, own nationality, and other simple autobiographical information. 6
139
UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGOGICA DE EL SALVADOR EDUCATION FACULTY
THE COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS DEVELOPED BY ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS, SECTION “A”, FROM INSTITUTO NACIONAL GENERAL FRANCISCO MORAZAN, SAN SALVADOR
2010-2011.
OBJECTIVE: To identify the outcome level of the macro and micro skills for communicating in English among eleventh grade students, at Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán, at the end of the school year, 2010.
PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES OF LANGUAGE SKILLS. INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
LEVEL LISTENIG CHECK READING CHECK SPEAKING CHECK WRITING CHECK
INTERMEDIATE LOW
ABLE TO UNDERSTAND SENTENCES IN A LIMITED NUMBER OF CONTENT AREAS
CAN ASK AND ANSWER QUESTIONS INITIATE AND RESPOND TO SIMPLE STATEMENTS AND MAINTING FACE TO FACE CONVERSATION
ABLE TO UNDERSTAND
MAIN IDEAS AND SOME
FACTS FROM SIMPLE TEXTS DEALING WITH
BASIC PERSONAL AND SOCIAL NEEDS
CAN WRITE SHORT MESSAGES, POSTCARDS AND TAKE DOWN SIMPLE NOTES
INTERMEDIATE MID
ABLE TO UNDERSTAND SENTENCES
ON A VARIETY OF TOPICS
RELATED TO PERSONAL
BACKROUND INTERESTS
AND ACTIVITIES,
SOCIAL CONVENTIONS
AND TASKS
ABLE TO TALK SIMPLY ABOUT
SELF AND FAMILY MEMBERS
ABLE TO READ SIMPLE TEXTS ABOUT WHICH THE READER HAS TO MAKE
MINIMAL SUPPOSITIONS
ABLE TO WRITE SHORT, SIMPLE TEXTS ABOUT
PERSONAL PREFERENCES,
DAILY ROUTINES, EVERYDAY
EVENTS AND OTHER TOPICS OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
CAN PARTICIPATE IN SIMPLE CONVERSATIONS ON TOPICS SUCH AS PERSONAL HISTORY AND LEISURE TIME ACTIVITIES.
CAN EXPRESS PRESENT TIME OR AT LEAST ONE OTHER TIME FRAME OR ASPECT CONSISTENTLY
140
ANALISYS
According to the information gathered in these instruments researchers can state
that in each skill the outcome level is the following:
For listening skill:
Students can be classified in the Intermediate Low Level, that means that their
ability to perform this skill is limited,they are able to understand just the vocabulary
that they frequently use in classes based on the book.
For reading:
Students can be classified in Novice High Level, this means that when they
develop this skill it is possible for them to get the idea that it is wanted to be
transmited in the reading but not with an extensive range of analisys, they
understand directions and get the commands in a general context.
PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES OF LANGUAGE SKILLS. INTERMEDIATE LEVEL
LEVEL LISTENIG CHECK READING CHECK SPEAKING CHECK WRITING CHECK
INTERMEDIATE HIGH
ABLE TO UNDERSTAND
SIMPLE LENGHT
SPEECH IN BASIC
PERSONAL AND SOCIAL
CONTEXT WITH EASE AND
CONFIDENCE
ABLE TO CONVERSE EASE AND CONFIDENCE
ABLE TO UNDERSTAND
FULLY AND EASE SHORT,
NON COMPLEX TEXTS THAT
CONVEY BASIC INFORMATION
ABLE TO WRITE COMPOSITIONS
AND SIMPLE SUMMARIES RELATED TO WORK AND
SCHOOL EXPERIENCES
ABLE TO HANDLE SUCCESFULLY
UNCOMPLICATED TASKS ANS SOCIAL
SITUATIONS REQUIRING AN EXCHANGE OF
BASIC INFORMATION
ABLE TO UNDERSTAND
SOME CONNECTED
TEXTS FEATURING
DESCRIPTION AND
NARRATION
WRITERS CAN NARRATE AND DESCRIBE IN
DIFFERENT TIME FRAMES
141
For speaking:
Students can be classified in Intermediate Mid Level, with this level of performance
students are able to have simply talks about themselves and family issues, to give
personal information and give their opinions about likes and dislikes with sense
and confidence.
For writing:
In this skill students are classified in Novice Mid Level, this is the skill that showed
the less managment compared with the other skills, at the moment that they
develop this skill in classes students just are able to transcribe and replace words
or phrases using the different vocabulary that they have already study or practice
with the vocabulary previously learned.
142
FINAL ACHIVEMENT TEST
PART I
Listening skill
Skill managed Skill do not managed
439 401
ANALYSIS
According to the survey the listening skill is managed in a 52% and the 48%of this
skill has not been developed as it is required. That means that listening activities
are developed with frequency in classes, having as a result an acceptable level of
development on this skill in most of the students. However it is not the same with
the 48% of the students. The situation is worrying because these students do not
have the level required and some of the reasons are the following:Students do not
pay attention when teacher plays the CD. The classrooms are not adecuated for
listening activities, and they do not participate in questions about the listening
exercises
LISTENING SKILL
52%
48%
143
READING SKILL
36%
64%
Reading skill
Skill managed Skill do not managed
142 258
ANALYSIS
According to the survey, only a 36% of this skill is managed and the 64% has not
been developed as it is required, it means that the activities performed in classes
are not enough neither effective in order to reach the necessary level to
comprehend the kind of reading presented on the test.
Researchers consider that the 36% of this skill is managed, becuase this is the
percentage of students who attend extra English classes and they are a little
immerse with the language. The situation is different with the other percentage of
students, who even though they have the books, they do not practice the reading
part correctly, because they do not try to comprehend the reading. They look for
meaning of words and waste time doing the same in exercises related to reading
comprehension.
144
SPEAKING SKILL
72%
28%
Speaking skill
Skill managed Skill do not managed
288 112
ANALYSIS
According to the survey, a 72% of this skill is managed and the 28% has not been
developed as it is required, in this case, it is showed that the speaking activities
applied in classes are effective in order to reach the necessary level to have a
basic conversation in order to give personal information.
However, researchers consider that studetns are not in the level required by the
Mined. This is because they are only able to answer basic questions about their
personal information, but can not keep up with a more complex conversation. They
do have a good pronunciation of known words, but have problems with the new
words. It is important to mention that they are not able to hold a conversation with
in high intermediate level students.
145
Writing skill
Skill managed Skill do not managed
634 1726
ANALYSIS
According to the results in this survey a 73% of this skill is not developed as it is
required in the different parts of the test, even though a 27% of this skill just has
been developed in order to manage spelling and grammar, but it is not enough to
determine that this skill has been developed integrally for communicative goals.
It means that students are not able to write short paragraphs using the vocabulary
known by them. They do not know how to arrange words , because they never
develop the writing excercises from the book. They only copy sentences from the
book and that is why researchers consider that teacher has to implement a good
method that can improve the development of this skill.
WRITING SKILL
27% 73%
146
FINAL ACHIVEMENT TEST
PART II
Skills LISTENING READING SPEAKING WRITING Total 52.26% 35.50% 72.00% 27.75%
ANALYSIS
Through the final achivemente test researchers find out that the communicative
skill most developed was speaking with 72% percent. This skill was most
developed because students practice vocabulary and dialogues frequently, besides
students have to perform them in front of the class. The second skill that students
manage is listening with 52.26% percent. This skill was practiced in an integrated
way with the speaking skill, this showed that students managed only the
vocabulary that they practiced in classes. In the third place it is reading with
35.50% percent. The low percentage of managing of this skill is due to they do not
practice this skill as it is demanded in the book and in the program. The writing skill
is the last one with 27.75% percent because those two skills, reading and writing,
are closed related and the lack of practice of reading skill affects the development
of writing skill, that is why they only manage basic vocabulary as they were in
novice high level.Researchers consider that all the skills have to be practiced,
because even students are good in one of them, they are not in the level
demanded by the Mined. Therefore; both students and teacher have to work in
order to improve the others skills which are netiher in the level demanded.
147
3.4.CHRONOGRAM
Activitites: Documental Research/Field Research
Aug /10 Sep-10 Oct-10 Nov-10 Dic-10 June/11 Feb-11 Mar/11 April/11 May-11 June/11
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Documental Research
Selection of bibliography
Reading bibliographic citations
Development and reading of bibliographic and summary index cards
Index cards of concept and cathegories
1.0 Conceptual Framework
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Background
1.3 Justification
1.4 Meeting with the advisor
1.5 Statement of the problema
1.6 Meeting with the advisor
1.7 Findings and Limitations
1.8 Concepts and Categories
1.9 Meeting with the advisor
1.10 First advance edition
1.11 First advance presentation
1.12 Meeting with the advisor
1.13 First advance correction
148
Activitites: Documental
Research/Field Research Aug/10 Sep-10 Oct-10 Nov-10 Dic-10 June/11 Feb-11 March/11 April/11 May-11 June/11 July/11 Aug/11
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 2 Theoretical Framework
2.1 Theoretical and methodological basis
2.2 Empirical framework
2.3 Meeting with the advisor
2.4 Design of instruments
2.5 Meeting with the advisor
2.6 Field attendance: Observation
2.7 Field attendance: Application of instruments
2.8 Organization of the information
2.9 Meeting with the advisor
2.10 Theoretical and
methodological formulation of the research
149
Activitites: Documental Research/Field Research
June/11 July/11 August/11 Sep-11 Oct-11 Nov-11
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 2.11 Development and theoretical definition
2.12 Meeting with the advisor
2.13 Second advance edition
2.14 Second advance presentation
2.15 Meeting with the advisor
2.16 Second advance correction
3 Operative Framework
3.1 Describing the subjects of the research
3.2 Data gathering procedure
3.3 Meeting with the advisor
3.4 Specification of the technique to the data analysis
3.5 Chronogram
3.6 Resources
3.7 Meeting with the advisor
3.8 Preliminary table of contents of the final report
3.9 Meeting with the advisor
3.1 Third advance edition
3.11 Third advance presentation
3.12 Meeting with the advisor
3.13 Third advance correction
3.14 Delivery of the work to DICTT
150
3.5 RESOURCES
3.5.1 HUMAN RESOURCES To carry out this research it was necessary the cooperation of the 40 students in
Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán and their English teacher as well as
the principal of this school. The English Teacher: He was the advisor of the
students during the year and he helped to the researchers to perform this project.
The researchers were working in this research observing, and evaluating to
students and editing the information for several months. The advisor; who lead to
the researchers with grammar structure, coherence of ideas during the edition of
this research and finally the members of the jury who contributed with their
comments and advice to the development of the project.
3.5.2 LOGISTICAL RESOURCES In order to achieve this research it was necessary to contact the Principal of the
school to ask permission to do the study in that school. Visiting to the English
Teacher to ask permission to attend and observe his English classes .Attending to
the Library allowed researchers to get information about the topic. Visiting
Universidad Pedagógica periodically to meet our advisor and the presentation of
every chapter to make sure the researchers were following the guidelines
established by the university. All the resources described above have allowed as
carrying out our research.
151
3.6 PRELIMINARY TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE FINAL REPORT
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
In this part the general and specific objectives that the researches want to achieve
during the research are presented. It also contains a backgrounds about the
development of communicative skills and the school; the place where the
information has been gathered. A justification, which states different reasons why
this research was important to carry out. Also , a statement of the problem which
details the object of the study and some causes about the situation of
development of the communicative skills, it can also be found the goal and
limitation concerning the communicative skills, the communicative approach and
the way how it can be evaluated, all of them based on different theories. At the end
this chapter presents some concepts and categories that are used along the
document, which describe the essential components to study the communicative
skills in the high school.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
It is the second part of the research. In this part there is a methodological and
theoretical fundamentation. It consists of a description about the communicative
skills; how they can be developed; it presents skill by skill; which are divided and
explained in two groups. Also there is a relation between the four skills and how
these can be taught through the communicative approach in order to reach the
communicative competences. Besides, this part contains an empirical framework.
It refers to the monograph of the place where the school is located, besides a
description of the school where it has been developed the research. So there is a
description about how the English classes are developed. Here the different kind of
instruments that were administrated to students at the beginning, during and at the
end of the research are presented, these instruments were applied during the
152
classes observed. After that, it can be found a methodological and theoretical
research formulation, It means the data gathering. Researchers used different
instruments like: observation check lists to evaluate the skills that have been
developed in class. Here researchers explain how the teacher and students
develop the communicative skills, comparing with the theory presented before and
also which principles of the communicative approach are applied in classes as
well as which communicative competence they develop. At the end of this part
there is a theoretical definition and development in which researchers had stated
they own theory basing on facts and theory about the way to develop the
communicative skills.
OPERATIVE FRAMEWORK
This is the last part of the research. It contains a description of the investigation
subject: first of all, a description of the group of investigation, the schedule for their
English classes and then the way in which researchers collect the information
needed for this investigation. Based on the observation made in classes
researchers are able to make an analysis about the way the teacher develop the
communicative competences and describe how students react to the class. The
second part of this chapter is the procedure for gathering data, in this part
researchers describe all the instruments used in this research, the following part is
specification of the technique to the data analysis, in this part researchers make a
specific description of the items of the each instrument used for this research, this
means that researchers give the specific objectives for each item of the fifth
instruments, finally the data analysis is presented, in this part the analysis of the
instruments used is described, through this part researchers are able to show
which is the communicative skill most developed by eleventh grade students of
Instituto Nacional General Francisco Morazán, 2010.
153
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES
1. BROWN, H. Douglas. “Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy”. Second Edition, Longman, Inc. New York, 2001.
2. HARMER, Jeremy. “The Practice of English Language Teaching”. Third Edition, Longman, England, 2001.
3. ICFES, Magisterio. “Evaluación por Competencias: lenguaje, idioma extranjero Inglés”. First Edition, Cooperativa Editorial Magisterio, Bogotà, 2004.
4. MADSEN, Harold S. “Techniques in Testing”. First Edition, Oxford University Press, Inc. New York, 1983.
5. MCLAREN, Neil, Madrid, Daniel, Bueno, Antonio. “TEFL in secondary Education. First Edition. Universidad de Granada.2005
6. MINED, “Programas de Estudio de Inglés. Primero y Segundo año de bachillerato de educación media”, Centroamérica, El Salvador,1998.
7. MINED, “English Syllabus, Tenth and eleventh grades, High School”, El Salvador, 2008.
8. Microsoft Encarta, Premium Dictionary, 2007.
9. Nuttall, Christine. “Teaching reading skills in a foreign language”. New Edition, Macmillan Publishers Limited, Thailand, 2000.
10. http://www.mined.gob.sv
11. http//www.auprides.org.sv
12. http//www.wikipedia.com
13. www.actflproficiencyguidelines.org