Activities at school could be the enemy.... again.

Dear all

I have had some problems to continue with the project. First, the target group is participating in another project called "Hermes", and there are a lot of activities, and additionally to the fact that in the school some activities are not announced timely, I have had to postpone those that I had prepared for the ARP.

Well... the students have created scripts for other shows, but recordings are missing, and the software necessary for the recording has not been installed yet.

On the other hand, I got a deep migraine and the doctor have given me six days of sick leave. Consequently I have not gotten in touch with the school.

I am really worried. My plan B is the moodle platform that I designed for 8th graders. Anyway I need to talk to them.

Meanwhile, I am adjusting theoretical framework, according to the comments that I received from my project director, professor Liliana Cuesta. She has let me think a lot.

Constructs-- After the first tutorial session.

I thought that I have included in my journal, but I have not done. In my opinion, what I am going to say is important because this is something that commonly happen when conducting a research study.

After my first tutorial with professor Liliana Cuesta, I found that I had to reconsider some constructs. I did not have a clear idea about including Cooperative or Collaborative learning, or perhaps both. After reading Gillies (2007) and Barkley, Cross and Major (2005), I found more appropriate to include only cooperative learning because the participants made decisions on some aspects, but not all of them. In this study, I kept some "traditional roles" (if I can say that).

I also had to clarify which aspects of radio the participants worked, and be concrete in the terminology.

Class recording

October 19: I finally could record the class. The focus was on planning a radio show section about giving advice for vacations, using modal auxiliary verbs (should - should not), and compound words. Next session will regard with checking pronunciation and recording.

Some obstacles in the way...

Classroom observation was planned by October 16. In spite of the fact that I have informed to the Academic coordinator, I had to cancel Valeriya and Liubava visit to the school. Sometimes schools do not understand how serious is an action research, but at the same time, conducting and action research in the school implies adapting to school's rhythm.

On the other hand, it has not been possible to install audacity in the virtual room at school. A strong virus and restrictions to download from internet are the reasons... What to do? Well. I have used my laptop. Nothing else to do.

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First audio recording: Reflection

Dear all

Last September 2nd, students had one of the most exciting days. They had the opportunity to do their first audio recordings. Here you are my reflection after observing and listening to the recordings. Only 5 groups present their product because the classroom that we use was not available, so I had to go to the theatre. At the end, it was an advantage, taking into account the size of this room and this fact gave them the opportunity to practice more spontaneously.

Most students participated actively in the lessons, planning, preparing, and self and peer correcting. Giving them the opportunity to make decisions about a topic and use what they have learned (radio language elements and comparatives and superlatives), led them interacting more with their partners.

In some cases, students experienced problems making decisions because they are not familiar with working in group. One student did not join any group, but she neither proposed an alternative, for example, to work alone. She felt that she is not accepted in the group, and additionally, she did not attend the class where the teams were formed. Other students did not attend either, but they were capable to join a group.

I noticed that they only used music and the script (words). They did not take into account special effects and blanks (silences).

In the recording, students showed worry for preparing and doing a good work. I wanted to video record the productions, but their anxiety range increase, not because of language, but because of the tool. Consequently, I had to audio record.

All the groups read what they had to say. Given that it is their first time for them to do such activity; I permitted them to do it. They were highly aware about turn taking.
Talking with them after the recording, they expressed that they felt anxiety for being understood, and having a good pronunciation, but at the same time happiness for participating in the activity and for showing their product. Mixing music with words was attractive for them. Of course, they need to improve dealing with these tools. They prefer writing before speaking, and decide about the other elements in radio (music, special effects). Finally, they started to identify roles in team work (director, Dj, presenter), and recognize that they need to practice more, individually and as a team.

Most students participated actively in the lessons, planning, preparing, and self and peer correcting. Giving them the opportunity to make decisions about a topic and use what they have learned (radio language elements and comparatives and superlatives), led them interacting more with their partners.

In some cases, students experienced problems making decisions because they are not familiar with working in group. One student did not join any group, but she neither proposed an alternative, for example, to work alone. She felt that she is not accepted in the group, and additionally, she did not attend the class where the teams were formed. Other students did not attend either, but they were capable to join a group.

I noticed that they only used music and the script (words). They did not take into account special effects and blanks (silences).

In the recording, students showed worry for preparing and doing a good work. I wanted to video record the productions, but their anxiety range increase, not because of language, but because of the tool. Consequently, I had to audio record.

All the groups read what they had to say. Given that it is their first time for them to do such activity; I permitted them to do it. They were highly aware about turn taking.
Talking with them after the recording, they expressed that they felt anxiety for being understood, and having a good pronunciation, but at the same time happiness for participating in the activity and for showing their product. Mixing music with words was attractive for them. Of course, they need to improve dealing with these tools. They prefer writing before speaking, and decide about the other elements in radio (music, special effects). Finally, they started to identify roles in team work (director, Dj, presenter), and recognize that they need to practice more, individually and as a team.

Survey results

Dear all.

I applied the SURVEY last August 14th. This is the reflection that I have about it.

The survey demonstrates that students recognize that they use the target language, but it is not frequent. The main situations for speaking are when it is required by the teacher, so they feel that they are not exposed enough to the spoken language.

On the other hand, few people use the spoken language spontaneously, and of course the information that they provide is few. At the same time, when teacher is talking, students recognize the main idea and answer with monosyllables (yes, no, finish). They prefer interacting with their classmates, and sometimes with the teacher. In spite of this, they feel a kind of anxiety which impedes to participate actively in class. The main reason is because of group pressure; that is their classmates’ reactions (laughing). Additionally, students feel that they have problems with pronunciation and because of this they do not feel confident when speaking.

Finally, most of them consider that the project chosen by them “Radio Show” would be useful for overcoming their lack of confidence when speaking. The reasons that they give are INTERACTION, INCREASING VOCABULARY, INCREASING PRONUNCIATION, LEARNING THING MEANINGFUL FOR THEM, and TEAM WORK.