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Lack of oral participation in eleven grade students in the English area

Gilber Cabrera Herrera & Oscar Cali guzmán

University of Córdoba
Faculty of Education and Human Sciences
Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Languages with an Emphasis in English

Research Seminar II

Leonardo Pacheco

February 23, 2022

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Lack of oral participation in eleven grade students

in the English area.

At the 11th grade of a public school called Educative Institution Liceo Caucasia located in

Caucasia Antioquia, we have observed facts that could be affecting the oral communication in those

students. Most of the students in this grade have been presenting insecurity when they are speaking in

English. From our perspective, we assume students don't have a wide vocabulary at the moment they

want to express their ideas in class. This could also be because of the weak teaching process by

teachers in previous grades. Given this situation, it leads us to think that the methodology that teachers

use doesn't include oral participation. Probably, they just use an activity where students have to answer

“A, B, C or D”, and those activities limit the progress of the learners because they don't feel the

necessity of the oral English production, maybe they consider that the activities in the English area are

only based on answering questions with multiple options, but they should be aware of the role that oral

production activities play in their language learning since it is these activities that help them increase

their confidence to actively participate orally in any subject that is being worked on in class. In

addition to that, it must be borne in mind that oral communication is what they will use in real

situations. As they are final grade students, they should work more on this oral part to ensure they

develop this communicative function and can have a broader field of opportunities after finishing their

school studies.

The poor participation presented in eleven grade students lies in the fact that they don’t have

enough motivation and enough interest in participating in the English class, because of a methodology

that doesn’t encourage participation, the aforementioned may be causing students to feel

uncomfortable when they are speaking English in public. Some students like English but they have a

lack of vocabulary and a lack of self-confidence. If this problem continues to occur in the 11th-grade

students of this school, consequences could arise, affecting not only the students but also the teachers

and the school as responsible for the optimal development and learning of the students.
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The teaching process that students have gone through in previous grades and current grade (11 th

grade) may have affected their motivation and interest in English, especially regarding oral

participation, so they can present a great number of absences of students in class hours in the English

area. To solve this problem, the school could focus more on a curriculum that responds to the needs of

students in terms of knowledge development and each skill and competence necessary to learn the

English language. Another suggestion would be the creation of spaces for reflection where both

teachers and students are involved, in these spaces they could deal with topics such as the importance

of the English language in their lives, and advice for a good language teaching, the aim would be to

promote motivation to learn English and develop all your skills. Finally, teachers should use an active

methodology that encourages student participation and focuses on oral production through the

interaction, presentation, expression of ideas, opinions, suggestions and knowledge within a group.

The purpose of this qualitative research, rooted in experimental action research, is to improve oral

production problems in 11th grade students of Caucasia High School. Through a task-based learning

approach, with the implementation of this method, students develop greater self-esteem and motivation

to communicate in class. In these activities, 11th graders have the opportunity to work in groups or

pairs, which strengthens interaction and confidence when speaking in English by requiring constant

communication in English. It is the lack of oral work in English class that makes interaction difficult

and that they can speak confidently when sharing any ideas or opinions in English. This description of

our purpose leads us to the following question: How can the Task Based Learning approach help

students to improve their oral production in English, being a method that requires collaborative

participation and constant use of the English language?

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1. Theoretical framework

The following chapter explores through a series of concepts related to the Task-Based Learning

Approach, Oral Production and Self-confidence, which give meaning and support our study.

2.1 Conceptual framework

2.1.1 Task Based Learning Approach

Task-based learning approach, like the other tasks, is a goal-guided activity, where students

must use the target language to achieve an outcome. In other words, students use target language as a

tool or way of solving a real problem through tasks with a communicative purpose ( Willis, 1996).

According to Büyükkarci (2009), “there is a large range of task possibilities; for example, visiting the

doctor, conducting an interview, or calling customer services for help”. In this sense, working with an

approach such as task-based learning contributes to the creation of spaces where you learn to solve

everyday problems in a target language. Learners work in groups using mostly oral communication to

achieve an accurate outcome that provides a solution to real-life situations.

The implementation of the task-based learning approach is certainly a good option if we want

to help learners improve their communication skills and show a positive attitude and great motivation

when participating orally. Badalyan (2007) argues that these kinds of tasks work remarkably in

relation to real-life situations, where students use language spontaneously and creatively, which turns

out to be interesting for learners and awakens their motivation to learn and actively participate. Putting

these language skills into practice provides students with sufficient competencies to perform in

situations outside the classroom. Therefore, they will find themselves in social situations in which they

have to communicate orally in a spontaneous and active way, making use of language functions such

as describing, explaining, giving ideas or opinions and verbally exchanging information about places,

people and things.

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These tasks increase the productivity of the learners, ensuring meaningful learning that

awakens the motivation and interest of the students in participating actively and orally during language

classes. When mentioning productivity, we are not referring only to an improvement in the ability to

communicate, but it also implies an improvement in vocabulary and knowledge of the language to be

able to function in social issues, As Ruso (1999) mentioned in his study:

Findings from the journal studies also indicate that homework has been beneficial for

vocabulary learning. The vocabulary learned while watching a movie or listening to a song

becomes more effective and permanent. The presentations made an especially significant

contribution to student learning. During these presentations, they not only improved their

spoken English but also their knowledge of social topics and relevant vocabulary. (p.10)

Hence, this approach is concerned with maintaining the interest and motivation of students

to learn the knowledge of the language and develop communication strategies that involve them

within productive interaction spaces.

The teaching-learning processes within the task-based learning approach is carried out under

a collaborative work dynamic, where students work together making use of their different

capacities and knowledge to successfully complete a task. Leigh and MacGregor (1992) establish

that “Collaborative learning encourages students to acquire an active voice in shaping their ideas

and values and a sensitive ear in hearing others”. Bearing this in mind, collaborative learning is

understood as a mechanism that encourages students to be aware of diversity and take advantage

of the differences and different perspectives of each group member to contribute to better security

and motivation and at the same time that develop their socio-affective skills for working together

and creating safe learning spaces.

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2.1.2 Oral production

Oral production is the mechanism by which students can manifest different thoughts, ideas

and opinions verbally, accurately and fluently, so it is necessary to implement activities that are

consistent with the interests of students to learn EFL (Sanabria & Silva, 2017, p.20). According to

Olsson (2018, p.20), “oral production activities such as prepared presentations and reading aloud

are useful for practicing the students’ pronunciation and vocabulary, but also their ability to

present their own ideas or opinions in a clear and structured way”. For this reason, in order for

learners to be more orally productive, they should practice more their speech and ability to

communicate and express their thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Activities such as expositions in

front of the class and readings aloud on topics of interest are practices that contribute to the

development of a broader vocabulary and better pronunciation, factors that will enhance their

ability to express ideas and opinions accurately, clearly, consistently and spontaneously.

Maintaining spaces for interaction (oral production) in language classes is essential for the

development of the target language among the learners. In addition to maintaining a healthy

coexistence in the classroom, it also increases their confidence to express themselves and is a way

of constantly measuring and verifying their level and performance in language learning. (Goh,

Goh & Burns, 2012, p.27) contend that “Interaction is very important in this part of the process

since oral production develops more easily when people interact with others, creating and

participating in conversations, debates, and communicative situations”. Thus, these forms of

interaction can mean an advance in the oral production of students if they work constantly and are

guided by the teacher to put them into practice inside and outside the classroom.
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The activities in classes aimed at working on communication skills and oral production

serve as a way to determine how competent the students are and how they develop or is their

performance in the use of language knowledge to communicate orally in real-time.

“Communication is the ultimate purpose of any language and it is often replaced by other

language aspects such as grammar” (Hernandez & Arturo, 2019, p.16). In this sense, the persistent

implementation of oral production is needed through pleasant material and according to the

interests of the students so that they are more animated and actively develop the activities and can

fulfill that essential purpose of any language.

2.1.3 Self-confidence

Self-confidence is defined as the ability, belief, or capacity that a person has to carry out

something (Kanza, 2016). According to Tripathy & Srivastava (2012), believe that self-confidence

is for students an attitude of themselves and that they believe in their abilities, and these beliefs are

directed towards goals, which they believe they will achieve, self-confidence is not similar in all

areas of a person throughout life; they may be overconfident in one specific area while not in other

areas. Thus, self-confidence is the engine or internal force of every human being to achieve certain

goals in life, self-confidence is so necessary and important for students that this is what allows

them to carry out activities that are crucial for their success. Many students prefer to stay in the

chair and miss out on something as valuable as oral participation in class for the simple fact that

they do not have the self-confidence necessary to speak for the simple fact of believing that their

colleagues will laugh at him or her for speaking badly or not knowing how to express themselves.

For a person to be successful in their educational process and approach their expected

goals; it is perhaps due to the most fundamental thing in every human being: self-confidence.

According to Norman and Hyland (2003), the school crisis in almost everyone is due to the little

self-confidence that students have; which leads them to have poor participation and poor progress
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during classes. They affirm that trust is the fundamental foundation that has its effects on the

participation and progress of every student.

Likewise (Kanza, 2016), maintains that self-confidence is quite necessary for each student

when making decisions to take necessary risks in learning activities; Kanza also affirms that those

who achieve sufficient confidence can achieve their goals because they are sure of their abilities

and for them, they work hard every day without worrying about the possible results.

3.1 Literature review

In the field of education, many researchers have been done taking into account the
implementation of the task-based learning approach to lead students towards better oral
production. In task-based learning, the oral part is worked more than anything else with content
that refers to real problem situations that invite collaborative learning to find solutions through
groups work. Action research study on the effect of implementing activities through the task-based
learning approach in English learners who execute activities based on oral interaction was carried
out by González and Arias (2009) to explain the process and show results that demonstrate
whether eighth-grade learners from a public school in Planeta Rica Córdoba developed or not a
higher quality of oral interaction when carrying out activities that involve task-based learning. The
results proved that the development of activities through the implementation of task-based
learning contributes to the improvement of interaction and oral participation in learning because
they were taken from real activities, and their content was based on the investigation of their own
experiences and topics of their interest, which supposes active oral participation on the part of
each student.
In a similar study, Peña and Onatra (2009) developed and applied tasks that contributed to
an improvement in the oral production of high school students from the Francisco de Paula
Santander public school in Bogotá. Peña and Onatra detect a positive attitude in the performance
of the students' oral skills after carrying out a set of activities related to TBL as part of an action
research plan. The researchers chose to apply two different types of strategies to encourage oral
production. “Some focused-on peer interaction, which involved conversation, formal and informal
interviews, and dialogue. The others focused on individual presentations based on the topics they
had proposed and on which they were interested. Although the students showed interest and
seemed to participate actively during the implementation of the task, some shortcomings in terms
of grammar and pronunciation were evident. Peña and Onatra concluded that the errors found in
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the oral production skills of the students served as an alert to "take action and modify behaviors"
and thus be able to correct those shortcomings found. In other words, being wrong is the key to
improvement as people learn from their mistakes.

Likewise, Mohammad Al-Hebaish (2012) states that for all four language skills, oral
production is fully correlated with confidence. To collect the data, Mohammad carried out a
General Self-Confidence Questionnaire that allowed him to collect enough information about the
level of English of the students. In addition to the questionnaire, an interview was carried out
where the participants were free to talk about any topic of interest. These results revealed that self-
confidence can affect the oral production of students, these results also showed that the higher was
self-confidence, the better scores the students had, and likewise, the less confidence they had was
also affected in their results. Muhammad suggests that during oral classes a relaxed and fun
environment should be maintained; and that the design of the activities should be more interesting
so that the learners focus on the positive, and the teachers encourage oral participation and that it
be in public, that is, in front of their classmates to lose fear and have a better level of speaking.
In similar, Zeleke Teshome Lucha and Alemtsehay Berhanu (2015) studied students' oral
interaction in EFL speaking classrooms in East Wollega zone, Sire Secondary School (10 grade).
To collect enough data, the observation of the oral production classes was implemented interviews
to the teachers, and questionnaires that were implemented to the students. As a result of this
investigation or this study was that it was found that the teachers in charge of English as a foreign
language in that school are not doing their job properly, which is to help students in their oral
production and improve in this aspect of teaching a foreign language; Z. Lucha and A. Berhanu
suggest that students' first language should not be used most of the time, and instead of that, it
should be used only when questions or ideas need to be clarified. These researchers conclude that
oral production in this school is not implemented properly, because both teachers and students do
not play the role of oral interaction in the classroom.
Finally, the researchers, Barrios & Garay (2020) want to find a way to increase oral
participation in an at-risk Chilean to encourage students to express their thoughts in English as a
Foreign Language (EFL), for this research, Barrios and Garay have implemented a mixed-method
strategy of quantitative and qualitative methodologies: for this, they used a survey to obtain a
broad vision of the object of study, a focus group, and personal interviews to obtain a deeper
understanding of the facts. As a result of the investigation, the researchers realized that the
students were aware of their limitations when speaking English and the difficulties they presented.
Barrios and Garay proposed: “Reading is the most natural skill to develop according to the
participants; mainly because they have the chance to reach a certain degree of understanding by
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reading as many times as they

want (pag. 14).

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