ACPI-TESOL

ANNUAL CONVENTION 2014

“How to Develop the Speaking Skill

through Reading Comprehension”
Proposal form
Deadline: May 31st, 2014.

Name/s of speaker/s
Last: Onatra Chavarro First: Clara Isabel
Last: Rojas Vanegas First: Elizabeth

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Speaker’s Address
Country: Colombia
Telephone: 57 1 4689586 Mobile: 57 3143485583 E-mail: clara.onatra@ugc.edu.co
Telephone: 57 1 5675311 Mobile: 57 3158007455 E-mail: elizabeth.rojas@ugc.edu.co

………………. ......…………………………………………….……….

Institution represented: _Universidad La Gran Colombia. Bogotá-Colombia.

Educational and professional background (50 words maximum):

The researchers are Masters in English Language Teaching for Self-Directed Learning, and hold a TESOL
certificate. They have wide experience in Teaching English as a Second Language in high schools and
universities in Colombia. Currently, they are working as full-time teachers and research advisors at Universidad
La Gran Colombia, Bogotá.

Title of presentation
FOSTERING READING COMPREHENSION AND SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING IN A COLLABORATIVE STRATEGIC
READING (CSR) SETTING

Type of presentation: (Tick one) Talk X Demonstration __ Workshop__Poster Session ___Other__ Commercial
presentation Yes ___ No ___ What will be promoted? Use of CSR as an effective strategy to foster reading comprehension.

Area (s) covered: Approaches/Methodology/Techniques; Learners’ Needs; Literature; Assessment; Primary;

Teacher Education/Development; Independent Learning; Use of Technology; Other: ……...
…………………………………………..

Equipment needed: Computer with Video-beam _X Internet X OHP ___

Time requested for workshops: 45 minutes _X 60 minutes ___ or more______

ABSTRACT to be printed in the program:

This Action Research project was carried out at two public educational institutions by two English teacher-researchers in
Bogotá, Colombia. The planning, design, implementation and analysis stages of this research experience were all framed
within a collaborative research strategy (research circle) devised by a local professional development program. Despite
working in different educational contexts, the teacher-researchers shared three common concerns: the poor performance
their learners showed in regards to their L2 reading comprehension, speaking skills and their difficulty to self-regulate their
learning. As a result of this, a multiple case Action Research study was designed to examine whether the use of
Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) could foster reading comprehension and speaking skills in English language
learners and at the same time help them become self-directed learners. Pre and post questionnaires and reading tests,
students’ learning logs, and teacher´s journals constituted the data collection methods used during the study. Results
indicate that the use of CSR impacted participants’ reading and speaking performance, learning attitudes and habits
positively. Participants developed effective reading comprehension skills, learned to participate in a collaborative reading
environment, responded positively to the development of the self-monitoring and self-assessment tasks that were part of
the implementation; in addition, they showed an increasing interest and commitment towards their own learning.

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 Keywords: Reading Comprehension, Collaborative Strategic Reading, Speaking, Self-Directed Learning,
Cooperative Work.

In order to help the Program Committee better evaluate your proposal, please submit a summary of the proposal in about 100/150
words in the space below specifying the objectives, the central idea and the origins of your presentation:
Classroom experimentation __ Research or Action research X Theoretical studies ___

Objectives:
 To support the development of reading comprehension and speaking skills in English through the implementation
of Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR).
 To foster the use of reading comprehension strategies self-directly.

Literature Review:
Reading Comprehesion (Bondanza, 1998, Grabe, 2009)
Speaking: Boonkit, (2010).
Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) (Klingner & Vaughn, 1998, Zainol, 2012)
Self-Directed Learning (SDL) (Hersey & Blanchard, 1988, Mocker & Spear,1982)

Type of Study: Action Research

Instruments For Data Collection

• Pre and post questionnaires.
• Pre and post tests
• Teacher’s journal
• Students’ Learning Logs

Pedagogical Intervention: It was based on the CSR approach, which is an instructional technique that uses two teaching
practices: cooperative learning and reading comprehension strategies.

Results:
We analyzed results using the Grounded theory, developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967). It is a general methodology for
developing theory that is grounded in data systematically gathered and analyzed (Strauss & Corbin, 1994).

DESCRIPTION OF SESSION

1. Warm Up
2. Presentation of the Objectives
3. Presentation of the Methodology
4. Presentation of the Results and Analysis
5. Conclusions.