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Ericka Chinchilla

Factors that Influence Participation in English Speaking Activities: A Case Study of 30 High School
Students

Summary:

The purpose of this case study was to explore factors that influence students’ participation in English speaking
activities at Colegio Técnico Profesional de Acosta in San Jose, Costa Rica. The population studied included
thirty students divided into two groups of fifteen students each from ninth and eleventh grade, enrolled in
conversational classes, as well as one English teacher. Data were collected through class observations and
semi-structured interviews with 10 students from each group. A qualitative analysis of the data revealed the
following themes: general anxiety, lack of self-confidence and motivation Most students agreed that they do not
feel confident about their English speaking skills and are afraid to make mistakes in front of their peers. On the
other hand, those students who feel somewhat confident about their speaking skills get anxious when they have
to speak in front of the whole class. Additionally, students mentioned that they feel more comfortable when they
are allowed to engage in small group conversation with their peers. The findings suggest the importance of
understanding teenagers' learning process, as well as finding activities that allow students to feel more
comfortable in the class. Additional investigation in the form of an action research project is proposed to work
with different Task-Based Learning activities that enhance team work.

Resumen:

Introduction:

School and students’ profile:

Colegio Tecnico Profesional de Acosta (CTP de Acosta), is a public high school located in the small town of
San Ignacio de Acosta, outside San Jose, Costa Rica. This institution provides the students with different technical
specialties, with the aim of allowing them to develop in a specific area of expertise from a young age. When it
comes to English, students must take the general English courses, which focuses on the developing the four skills.
Students can also take conversational classes, which are meant to improve their speaking skills. Among the
technical specialties, students can choose the Bilingual secretarial technical; nonetheless, they will also receive
English classes for each of the specialties available.

The students present in this study, are ninth and eleventh grade students. The ninth graders are enrolled in a
general conversational course, where they discuss different topics throughout the year with the purpose of
improving their speaking skills. On the other hand, the eleven grade students are enrolled in the Accounting and
Finances specialty; therefore, they have to take an English for specific purposes class, where they discuss topics
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related to their specialty, but in English. Is it important to mention that none of the students have studied English
outside the high school and have a basic English level in general.

Justification:
When learning a language, it is fundamental that we integrate the four skills (reading, writing, listening and
speaking). The purpose of a conversational class is to create a space where the students can improve all the skills
previously mentioned, especially the speaking part. The role of the teacher is to ensure that students feel confident
to speak and to encourage them to do so through activities that can be of their interest. While the purpose of
conversational classes is clear, the reality is completely different. Unfortunately, during initial fieldwork, this
researcher noticed a significant lack of participation among the students in the English groups visited. The
majority of the students are not able to communicate, nor being encouraged to do so during the majority of the
class, in some occasions. It is very important to stimulate critical thinking among students, but keeping in mind
that it can be challenging when it comes to teenagers. Motivation has an important role in learning, when students
are not motivated they become unresponsive to the activities done in class. For this reason, this study focuses on
exploring activities and methodologies that can possibly enhance the students’ willingness to participate in
English speaking activities with the purpose of improving the learning experience.

Research Question(s):
Central question: What factors influence the participation in speaking activities during conversational English
classes among a group of 14 ninth grade and 14 eleventh grade EFL students at a rural high school in Costa
Rica?
Sub Question 1: What is the teacher’s perception about the factors that influence the participation in English
speaking activities?
Sub Question 2: What are the students’ perceptions about the topics discussed in class?
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-Sub Question 3: What factors increase and decrease student’s willingness to participate in these activities?

Objectives:
General Objective: Explore factors that influence students’ willingness to participate in speaking activities in
English conversational classes among 15 ninth grade EFL students at a rural Costa Rican public high school.
Specific Objectives:
 Describe teachers’ perceptions about factor that influence students’ willingness to participate in speaking
activities.
 Describe students’ perceptions about the topics studied in class.
 Identify factors that increase and decrease students’ willingness to participate in these activities.

Theoretical Framework:

Understanding teenagers’ learning process: Age factor

Teaching English to teenagers can be really challenging. There are many factors that influence their learning
process and teachers often have to adapt their teaching methodology to the students’ needs. Teenagers are
different, they are not children nor are they adults. They bring to the classroom and the learning situation, a very
unique set of cognitive, emotional, and social factors which teachers must consider when delivering content.
They learn differently, they are “wired” differently (ELT Buzz, n.d.). For teenagers is it important to know
exactly why they are doing things. They are no longer happy with just be playing a game or watching a TV clip
for the sake of it. They need to know why they are doing an activity and that their time is not being wasted. To
this end, teachers should always make the aims of an activity explicit, explaining the purpose beforehand. Most
teenagers are naturally competitive, which can be used as an advantage in the classroom. (cita) – Look for a
different source.

On the other hand, there’s one very significant issue and reality need to be definitely examined. It is that this
age group learners undergo dramatic change, have differences at this moment of their lives and they have to deal
with all of these changes. Lewis (2007) focuses on especially three main changes the young adolescents
experience. These are named as physical, psychological and social changes which have a great role in immediate
behavioral and attitude changes of the teenage. They have to handle a great number of challenges such as the
changes with their bodies, get used to them, try to have an identity and a role in a society to be accepted by their
peers and to have a balance with their parents and their social life. Along with this huge burden, they have to
adapt to a secondary school which corresponds to the same time with all these differences in their lives (Arda &
Doyran, 2017).
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The role of students’ motivation and attitude

Motivation can be defined as “a complex of processes shaping and sustaining learner involvement in
learning” (Ushioda, 2001, p. 121), offers the main stimulus to start learning a language and acts as “the driving
force” that moves the language learning process forward (Dörnyei, 2005, p. 65). As previously mentioned, it can
be difficult for teenagers to be interested in English classes if they don not have a purpose to learn English.
While many of them might have a reason to learn such as cultural reasons, understanding of the importance of
English in today’s society as a lingua franca, there are others that simple do not care about it (Pavelescu, 2019).

Moreover, a great many researchers strongly believe that attitudes of the learners towards the target language
is one of the most vital parts of language learning process and have great importance. According to the
researchers, there are many reasons underneath this utterance. İnal and Evin and Saracaloğlu (2006) mention that
the attitudes of learners towards language learning have significant effect on how they behave and feel. Each
language learner has the potential to develop different kind of attitudes towards language learning when all the
important issues mentioned above in the definition of attitudes are considered. Even though it may be
impossible to find out and identify each student’s attitudes and their influences on language learning, this
situation could be separated into groups as young learners’ and teenagers’ attitudes towards English language
learning (ELL). “While young learners present and show more positive attitudes and enthusiasm for ELL,
teenagers tend to be less motivated and reluctant for learning (Loukotková, 2011).

Factors that could influence students’ willingness to participate in class

Taking into consideration the two points previously mentioned, we could say that students’ participation in
English classes could be directly related to their motivation and attitude towards the language. “Since teenagers
tend to be dissatisfied with almost anything, it’s really hard to find interesting and appealing topics and activities
for them. So, the teacher has a great job at this point to bring extraordinary activities into classroom (Arda &
Doyran, 2017)”. Apart from motivation, we should also consider other factors such as classroom environment,
students’ relationship with each other, etc. When we encounter any of these situations it can be really difficult to
engage the student in the classroom, as it is no longer a matter of whether they enjoy English lessons or not, but
how they feel about school and classmates overall.

Another aspect that could stop students from participating is language anxiety, Jones (2004) defines this
phenomenon in language learning situation as a fear provoked when the learner is asked to speak in the second or
the foreign language in public, with the risk of social embarrassment. Oxford (1990), Jones (2004), Von Worde
(2003) and Turula (2004) conclude that anxiety has a negative effect in language learning. Fears, nervousness,
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insecurity and lack of self-confidence are related to language anxiety. Speaking is a stressful skill when they
have to interact or do an oral presentation. Furthermore, in public schools not many teachers devote time and
effort to develop the speaking skill, perhaps because it is not required in learners’ current lives, while in first and
second language contexts it does deserve more attention (Tinjacá & Contreras, 2007).

-Add an introduction- “Self-esteem and self-confidence are like the foundations of a building: if they are not
secure enough, even the best technology will be insufficient to build solid walls over them. The teacher can
employ the most creative motivational ideas, but if students have basic doubts about themselves they will be
unable to ‘bloom’ as learners” (Dörnyei, 2002, p. 87). Moreover, people with a low sense of self-efficacy do not
perceive difficult tasks as challenges but as threats, and in this situation, they become more concentrated on their
personal deficiencies and obstacles rather than on how to perform the tasks successfully. For this reason, this
kind of people are likely to give up on whatever activity because, unfortunately, they lose faith in their
capabilities.

Teacher-Teenager relationship

Students’ motivation and even willingness to have an active role in the class can also depend on the
relationship they have with their teachers. If the teacher represents an authority figure for them, someone who
seems respected and that at the same time knows how to get along with them, it is likely that the majority of
students will engage in the English class. On the other hand, if the teacher does not have any motivation to teach,
treats students with no respect and does not validate their feelings, it is possible that students will not feel like
taking part of the class. First of all, it is important, when teaching teenagers, to build up a good relationship with
them. Many authors believe that the quality of the teacher-teenager relationship is the key to success in teaching.
G. Lewis emphasizes that one of the main factors in accessing teenagers is respect and tolerance for them (3). Ur
infers from her survey that, “most adolescents may prefer their teachers to value and respect them rather than to be
their friends” (293).
To establish a good teacher-teenager relationship, there is a general agreement that teachers need to show that
they are interested in their students. However, Twitchell mentions that teachers should not approach and get to
know teenagers only with the idea that it will make the teaching easier. Teachers should really be interested in
their teenage students and show that they are truly important for them (Loukotková, 2011).

Activities that could enhance students’ willingness to participate

The emotional nature of teenagers can represent an advantage in their learning. Harmer explains that once they
are engaged, they express passionate commitment to what they are doing (“The Practice of English Language
Teaching” 83). It is therefore the task of teachers to “provoke student engagement with material which is relevant
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and involving” (Harmer, “The Practice of English Language Teaching” 84). Puchta and Schratz claim that
problems with teaching teenagers partly result from the teacher’s failure to “build bridges between what they want
and have to teach and their students’ worlds of thought and experience” (4). They advocate that teachers need to
link language teaching more closely to students’ interests (Loukotková, 2011).
Puchta and other authors are in favor of the use of humanistic teaching in teenagers. In a humanist classroom,
students should be emotionally involved in learning and feel good about themselves. The key idea is that
successful learning takes place when students are engaged and emotionally open to new language. Piccolo
supports the idea that language needs to be connected closely to students’ lives and interests. “Teenagers look for
meaning and significance in relation to their own lives in what they are taught” (Piccolo). She states that teachers
should take advantage of this and personalize their lessons with regard to what is going on in lives of their
students at the moment (Loukotková, 2011).
According to Nunan (1989), adopting CL means facing a challenge and changing. In CL students are not
considered as relatively passive recipients of knowledge, but rather active participants and responsible for their
own learning. Furthermore, Vigotsky (1978) states that to be meaningful, learning should be articulated both in a
social context and in the daily life of the learner, thus children have an active and creative participation in the
construction of knowledge. Generally, teenagers like to be seen as cool and up to date. Lindstromberg says that it
is wise to try to discover what topics are of current interest to teenage group and include them in the lessons (7). It
is recommended to bring in such topics of interest from areas like IT, sport, entertainment, media and English-
speaking cultures that are personally relevant to teenage learners (Loukotková, 2011).
Generally speaking, teenagers are rather competitive, they like to win and show off. Therefore, experts in
methodology advise to include games into teaching. Lindstromberg agrees that activities with game-like elements
are usually very good for provoking interest. Such elements are for example a degree of competition and a goal
which concerns something other than getting the language right. An example of this type of goal is spotting as
many differences between two pictures as possible within a time limit, or solving a brainteaser (Loukotková,
2011).
Methodological Framework
This qualitative study focused on two groups of 15 students each in their tenth year of bilingual secretarial studies
in a rural school located in Acosta, San Jose, Costa Rica.

A qualitative methodology was used to explore and understand the impact that COVID-19 had on students'
participation in conversational classes, taking in consideration the return to face-to-face classes. In addition, this
qualitative study allowed for an in-depth analysis of student and teacher perceptions regarding the pandemic,
virtual classes, return to face-to-face classes, class participation, and more.

In addition to interviewing students, this study interviewed the teacher who teaches conversational English classes
to students.
This was done in order to determine her perspective on student participation from the virtual and face-to-face
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experience. The teacher’s narratives were used to document her role in preparing students for college-level work
and their perceptions of the courses and how the students' behavior, attitude, and even academic performance were
affected by the pandemic.

An interview protocol (see Annex 3) was used for the teacher who participated in the study as well as for the
students. In addition to this, four different observation sessions of two to four hours were conducted to analyze
and explore the behavior and participation of the students in a real classroom environment. The observations were
completed by following a pre-observation document (see Annex 1) and a notes format document to note all the
findings (see Annex 2). The interview protocol for the teacher (see Annex 3) and the interview protocol for
students (see Annex 4) were designed with questions that help us obtains more data. Also, with these interviews it
is possible to identify reaction, facial expressions and body language.

Analysis of Results and Conclusions

Results of Data Analysis: The primary aim of this research project was to answer the question which factors
influence participation in English speaking activities. Data from observation reports and interviews with students
and teacher were explored through a qualitative data analysis process. The following codes were used to label
segments of text from ... (data collection instrument responses). The codes included observation reports and
responses from interviews done to students and teacher. The codes were grouped into three categories by anxiety,
lack of self-confidence and motivation. Through this process ... several themes were discovered. The first theme is
anxiety; students feel anxious when they have to speak in front of the whole class. For example, during one of the
interviews, a 11th grade student mentioned that he is confident about his speaking skills; nonetheless, since he
doesn’t have the opportunity to practice outside school he gets really anxious when he has to speak in front of the
whole class, and is likely to forget word pronunciation or sentence structure. This seems to indicate anxiety plays
a very significant role in teenagers when it comes to speaking activities. Another theme that resulted from the data
analysis was lack of self-confidence, where several students mentioned that they do not feel confident about their
English speaking skills; therefore, are afraid of making mistakes in front of the whole class and of their classmates
making fun of them. The last theme identified is motivation, where students claim that some of the activities are
boring and they simply don’t feel motivated to participate. They claim speaking activities where they have to
work in pairs with classmates they don’t know, or are not friends with are difficult as they are shy and usually
don’tengage in conversation.

Conclusions: Regarding the primary research question: what factors influence the participation in speaking
activities during conversational English classes among two groups of 15 students each from ninth and eleventh
grade at a rural high school in Costa Rica?, evidence from the data shows the three main factors that influence
participation in speaking activities: anxiety, lack of self-confidence and motivation. For example, students claim
to get anxious when they have to speak in front of the whole class, some of them believe their English speaking
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skills and not good enough and are afraid of being ridiculed in class. Additionally, most of them mentioned that
the majority of the speaking activities are boring and don’t allow them to get in conversations with their peers.
This seems to support Seda Arda and Feyza Doyran (2017) because according to their study “teenagers tend to be
dissatisfied with almost anything, it’s really hard to find interesting and appealing topics and activities for them.
So, the teacher has a great job at this point to bring extraordinary activities into classroom.” Answers to the
secondary research question: What is the teacher’s perception about the factors that influence the participation in
English speaking activities? can also be inferred from the data. The teacher also agrees that students are usually
anxious about speaking as they are afraid of making mistakes. This can be associated to their age; according to
Jones A.H. (2024) language anxiety can be defined as “a phenomenon in language learning situation as a fear
provoked when the learner is asked to speak in the second or the foreign language in public, with the risk of social
embarrassment.”

Limitations: Limitations to the current student include having more time to speak with students about different
activities that could be more interesting for them because since they didn’t have much time to finish the course
topics, I was only able to make one interview per group. Further research is recommended in the areas of specific
activities to improve students’ motivation, decrease their levels of anxiety and increase their self-confidence
because I was only able to create around three activities per group. During most classes I worked with the
activities that the teacher had already prepared.

Intervention Project Proposal

Justification: This research project looked at the problem of low levels of participation in English speaking
lessons among two groups of 10th and 12th grade at Colegio Técnico Profesional de Acosta. Through the
collection and analysis of data from class observations, student questionnaires, and teacher interviews, it was
shown that students’ willingness to participate in speaking classes is affected by their confidence in their language
ability and their more general anxiety about speaking about daily topics in English in unplanned conversation
activities. Several of these issues can be addressed through direct teacher intervention including allowing the
students to engage in small group conversations where they feel more comfortable to speak. Students’ willingness
to participate can be directly improved through allowing the students to engage in small group conversations
where they feel more comfortable to speak. As a follow up to this case study the following action research project
will be carried out during the next academic period from February to April 2022.

Objectives: The proposed action research project has the following general and specific objectives
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General Objective:
Specific Objective 1:
Specific Objective 2:
Specific Objective 3:

Target Population, Activities, and Resources: This project will investigate 30 students from 10th and 12th
grade at Colegio Tecnico Profesional de Acosta from February to April 2022. To carry out the intervention
project, the researcher will work with TBLT lesson plans and encourage small group conversations where students
can feel more comfortable to speak English. Additionally, the teacher will introduce and model several key
phrases and discourse frames that can facilitate the students’ interaction during the speaking activity and will
display those phrases on tablets, computers or the board. These teacher interventions are expected to increase
students’ participation during English speaking lessons because it has been demonstrated that students’ tend to
feel more relaxed and motivated to speak when they do it in small groups instead of in front of the whole class. To
determine the actual results of the intervention, the researcher will plan at least two different interactive activities
(role plays, speaking stations, etc) where students will have to engage in conversations with their partners. The
teacher will evaluate their speaking abilities during these activities. Additionally, 10 students from 10th and 12th
grade will be chosen to perform an interview to determine if they in fact are feeling more motivated and less
anxious to speak during English lessons.

Anexes

Annex 1. Pre-Observation Preparation Group #1

Essential Questions: 
● What is the level of English oral participation that students have?
● How do the students behave in class?
● How does the teacher manage the class?
● What types of activities are present in the class?

Observation Points: 

● Students interactions ● Students participation

● Activities  ● Student’s interaction between classmates
● Class management  ● Student’s interaction with the teacher
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Annex 2. Observation Notes

Observer Name: Date:

Teacher Name: Level / Schedule:

Theme / Topic / Language:

Time  Objective Subjective Interpretation: 

Description: 

● ●

What supported the learning What challenges are present in the lesson?
process? 

Annex 3. Interview Consent Form

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Annex 4. Interview Protocol for the teacher

Exploring the impact of COVID-19 on students’ participation in conversational face to

face classes.

Time of Interview:
Date:
Duration:
Interviewer:
Interviewee:
Position of Interviewee:

Opening: We are here to conduct an interview as part of my research project on students’

participation in conversational face to face classes. I am working with …population…
and collecting data from teachers and students. In order to protect your confidentiality, I
will not include your name or personal information and will modify your answers as
needed to protect your privacy. This interview will take approximately 15 minutes. Can I
ask you to please sign this consent form?

Before we start, let’s just test to make sure the phone is recording and that the sound
quality is good. 

Questions: 
● General Question about the Topic
o Do you think that COVID-19 affects and impacts the students'
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participation in conversational classes? Why?

● Specific Questions
o Were the students more active in speaking activities before COVID-19?
o Why do you think that students do not participate in speaking activities
during the class?
o What activities have you noticed to be more effective in terms of making
students participate?
o Do you feel that your students are really engaged in your class?
o What do you think is the main challenge of returning to face-to-face
classes after COVID-19?

Closing: Thank you so much for your cooperation and participation in this interview. I
assure you that your identity will be kept confidential for your responses in this and in any
future interviews.

Clarifying Probes and Follow-Ups Elaborating Probes

● I want to make sure I’m understanding ● Tell me more about that.

you correctly. Are you saying…?
● And when was that?
● What do you think the reason might be?
● Could you explain that a little
more?
● Could you provide an example?
● What does (not much, a lot,
sometimes, etc.) mean to you?

Annex 5. Interview Protocol for students

Exploring the impact of COVID-19 on students’ participation in conversational face to

face classes.

Time of Interview:
Date:
Duration:
Interviewer:
Interviewee:
Position of Interviewee:

Opening: We are here to conduct an interview as part of my research project on students’

participation in conversational face to face classes. I am working with …population…
and collecting data from teachers and students. In order to protect your confidentiality, I
will not include your name or personal information and will modify your answers as
needed to protect your privacy. This interview will take approximately 10 minutes. Can I
ask you to please sign this consent form?

Before we start, let’s just test to make sure the phone is recording and that the sound
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Ericka Chinchilla

quality is good. 

Questions: 

● General Question about the Topic

o Do you think that COVID-19 affects and impacts your participation in
conversational classes? Why?

● Specific Questions
o Why did you choose the Bilingual Secretary specialty?
o Were you more active in speaking activities before COVID-19?
o Why do you think that you and your classmates do not participate in
speaking activities during the class?
o What activities do you prefer in the class?
o What do you think is the main challenge of returning to face-to-face
classes after COVID-19, did you get anxious?

Closing: Thank you so much for your cooperation and participation in this interview. I
assure you that your identity will be kept confidential for your responses in this and in any
future interviews.

Clarifying Probes and Follow-Ups Elaborating Probes

● I want to make sure I’m understanding ● Tell me more about that.

you correctly. Are you saying…?
● And when was that?
● What do you think the reason might be?
● Could you explain that a little
more?
● Could you provide an example?
● What does (not much, a lot,
sometimes, etc.) mean to you?
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