Assignment - ORLC

SUBJECT RESIT:
OBSERVATION & RESEARCH IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

GENERAL INFORMATION:

This assignment has to fulfil the following conditions:

- Length: 5 pages (without including cover, index or appendices –if there are any-).
- Type of font: Arial or Times New Roman.
- Size: 11.
- Line height: 1.5.
- Alignment: Justified.

The assignment has to be done in this Word document and has to fulfil the rules of
presentation and edition, as for quotes and bibliographical references which are detailed in
the Study Guide.

Also, it has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the Study Guide. Sending it
to the tutor’s e-mail is not permitted.

In addition to this, it is very important to read the assessment criteria, which can be found
in the Study Guide.

The assignment mark is 100% of the final mark, but the participation in the activities
performed during the tutorials can improve this mark.

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 Assignment - ORLC

Assignment:

Read the six case studies in the pdf document, each of which investigates a different
topic: literature, grammar, oral English, teaching techniques, language learning,
writing. When you have finished reading, follow the instructions below. (From Wallace
1998: 166-169). Of the six case studies outlined above, which topic would be of most
interest/relevance for a group of students with which you are familiar? Think about
how you would need to adapt the case study for your target group's needs by
considering the following questions:

1. Clearly outline the population for your adapted case study.

2. How would you adapt the structure of the case study to fit in with your target
group and teaching context?

3. What sort of data would you generate and how would you generate it?

4. How would you analyse the data?

Important: you have to write your personal details and the subject name on the cover
(see the next page). The assignment that does not fulfil these conditions will not be
corrected. You have to include the assignment index below the cover.

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 Assignment - ORLC

Name and surname(s): Leidy Luz Orozco Durango

Login: COFPMTFL918268
Group: 2015-06
Date: September 25th, 2016

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 Assignment - ORLC

Case study 6: “Motivating the advanced learner in developing writing skills: a

project”

Table of contents

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………5
2. Population………………………………………………………………………………………..5
3. Adaptation of the case study…………………………………………………………………..6
4. Data collection……………………………………………………………………………………7
5. Data analysis…………………………………………………………………………………….8
6. Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………………..9
7. Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………..10
8. Webography…………………………………………………………………………………….10

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 Assignment - ORLC

INTRODUCTION

Teaching English to young learners becomes a hard task for teachers in terms of the
use of resources or even the methodology to be used. At the same time, the teacher must
become an observer inside the classroom in order to make the arrangements needed to
maintain students’ motivation.

After observation takes place, the teacher must reflect on his/her role in the
classroom. This reflection should be focused on the methodology used, the materials
appropriateness, learners’ needs and classroom environment.

It is true that the teacher’s role is not only to be the transferor of knowledge, each
class he/she must become a researcher as well since every single class students show
different kinds of expressions that can allow the teacher to realise if the activity is working at
all or not.

The case six of this assignment has to deal with the most common problematic inside
the language classroom which is motivation, not only to writing but to the language learning
itself.

2. POPULATION

The population used for this case study is a group of fifteen students of eleventh
grade in a public school which is the last level of education in Colombia. These students
show a low level of motivation to writing, they do not even like writing in their mother tongue
so they show this lack of motivation in the English classes too.

At the final term of the eleventh grade, all students in Colombia take a mandatory test
in which they are tested in several subjects, among which we find English. This test is
exclusively written, so they must have a good preparation in this aspect.

Writing activities can be rewarding and funny, but the fifteen students of the sample
population show an apathetic thinking to this kind of activities, so their skills on it are low.

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3. ADAPTATION OF THE CASE STUDY

Even though the characteristics of the case study six are not totally equal to the
population sample taken for this assignment, it shares similar aspects such as low
motivation to writing activities.

To adapt this case study to my population context I will take some aspects such as
the low motivation of learners and the low interest to writing activities. These two aspects
were found in the fifteen students which I will work with.

Before choosing one case study of the six cases presented in the assignment, I
carried out an observation process to identify at least one of the main problems inside the
eleventh graders students with whom I currently work. The sample group ages go from
fifteen to seventeen years old. After the observation process was carried out and analysed, I
found that from a group of 25 students, fifteen of them showed low motivation when
performing writing activities. Then, a deeper observation process was done focusing mainly
on these fifteen students in order to find the reasons for the low motivation and it was seen
that this is because these students have a poor vocabulary in English so they do not feel
confident when writing or even speaking in this language.

One of the strategies used by the teacher in the case study six was a brainstorming
to identify English-speaking institutions outside the university but this strategy did not work to
me due to the different contexts of the two sample populations. What I would do is an oral
survey to find how much vocabulary students have. This survey will show some expected
results such as the low level of vocabulary. The lack of vocabulary may make students feel
uncomfortable at the moment of producing a text since writing is one of the most difficult
tasks when learning a second language.

For enhancing students’ motivation I will work with short stories since most of them
are written in English as well as Spanish and this would make students feel confident when
working with them. At the end of the study they will have improve their writing skills and will
feel confident and motivated when writing.

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To begin, I will introduce the topic by asking students about short stories. Some
questions will be done such as: Do you know what a short story is? What short stories do
you know? Which is your favourite short story?

These questions will be done orally to the sample population in order to get their
attention and the teacher will take notes of their answers. Then they will discuss among
them the answers they gave to make comparisons of their preferences. The project task to
increase students’ motivation will be focused on creating a short story of their own. This will
help them to increase their vocabulary at the same time they feel more confident when
writing and even reading a text, no matter if it is an academic or not.

By creating a short story, students will not only be asked to write to improve their
vocabulary learning, their imagination will also be increased since creating something new
requires a great deal of it. According to this, it is precise to say that short stories stimulates
imagination, furthermore they are a vehicle to enhance students’ vocabulary learning as well
as their attention and interest to writing tasks.

Even though short stories are not always easy to write, they will help learners to
improve their writing skills. As short stories are not as long as a novel, about 1,000 to 2,000
words, they can help learners to explore the language and, at the same time increase their
vocabulary.

4. DATA COLLECTION

In order to gather the information needed for this case study and taking into account
the population sample, the data collection is carried out through a permanent observation
process which is done at each stage of the project. This observation process leads the
researcher-teacher to find out how the main goal of the project is being achieved, if not, the
activities must be redirected. Some records of this observation process would be done in
order to assure that all the factors will be taken into consideration.

What is more, an open interview is carried out since it allows the students to express
themselves with freedom. This interview is done at the beginning of the study so as to get
information about students’ expectations, feelings, interests and motivation level.

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 Assignment - ORLC

In addition, a questionnaire is used as well. This questionnaire is done in the

classroom in order to maintain its validity and reliability. I decided to use a questionnaire to
gather information about the process because it can be applied to a number of people
without wasting much time and the results of it can be quickly and easily analysed. The
fifteen students are asked to answer a written questionnaire in which they fill in according to
the information required. This questionnaire would be applied before the students finish the
writing project in order to gather more information about the whole process and about how
much their expectations and motivation level have improved.

5. DATA ANALYSIS

Up to this point, and taking into consideration the analysis of the data gathered on the
whole project, it is necessary to do dome discourse analysis, since it refers to a variety of
procedures for examining chunks of language, whether spoken or written.(Allwright and
Bailey, 1991). Through the discourse analysis some sort of information will arise and this
would help the researcher-teacher to determine whether the goal of the research is being
reached.

Furthermore, the analysis of the information gathered from the interview and the
questionnaire would be analysed through methodological triangulation, which refers to using
different methods to collect the data, for example observation, analysis of transcripts and
self-report surveys (Denzin, 1970:472). This methodological triangulation will lead us to
provide the confirmation of findings with more comprehensive data, increased validity and
understanding of the studied process.

What is more, mmethodological triangulation has been found to be beneficial in

providing confirmation of findings, more comprehensive data, increased validity and
enhanced understanding of the studied phenomenon (Redfern and Norman 1994, Risjord et
al 2001, Foss and Ellefsen 2002, Halcomb and Andrews 2005, Casey and Murphy 2009,
taken from http://journals.rcni.com/)

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 Assignment - ORLC

6. CONCLUSIONS

Carrying out a writing project can become an interesting issue to carry out a research
process. Along this paper some aspects of the research process were born in mind and
analysed and some conclusions arose:

 Motivation is one of the most changing issues in the language classroom and
it is one of the aspects many teachers take into consideration to do research.
 In order to understand what happens in the language classroom, the teacher
must first become a good observer to find out the aspects that need to be
analysed and then reflect on his/her teaching practice so as to address the
aspects that require study.
 After this research process was carried out, the fifteen students of the
eleventh group would show a change on their attitude and motivation to a
writing project based on short stories.
 Finally, an interview done to the sample population would reveal the level of
satisfaction, motivation and gratitude towards the project and the researcher
teacher since they felt as an important part of a process of change of attitude
and learning.

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 Assignment - ORLC

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Bailey, K. M. ; Hulse M.L.; Shaw, P. A; & Williams, D. (1990). A comparison

of the DLI Method and Suggestopedia for the Teaching of Russian as a
Foreign Language: Report of Pedagogic Ethnographic Support Team, cited in
Allwright and Bailey (1991)

 Denzing, N. K.(1978). Sociological methods: a source book. Aldine. Chicago.

 Redfern SJ, Norman IJ (1994) Validity through triangulation. Nurse

Researcher. 2, 2, 41-56

 Zuñiga, C. G. (2001) Constructing Literacy from Reading in First and second

Language. Universidad Sur Colombiana. Neiva, Colombia

8. WEBOGRAPHY

 http//:www.dictionary.com
 http://journals.rcni.com/doi/pdfplus/10.7748/nr2012.11.20.2.40.c9442
 libweb.surrey.ac.uk/library/skills

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