ESCUELA NORMAL DE ATLACOMULCO “PROFESORA

EVANGELINA ALCÁNTARA DÍAZ”

PROYECTO DE INVESTIGACIÓN

RECEPTIVE AND PRODUCTIVE SKILLS TO DEVELOP ENGLISH SKILLS IN

SECONDARY STUDENTS.

LICENCIATURA EN ENSAÑANZA Y APRENDIZAJE DEL INGLÉS DE EDUCACION SECUNDARIA.

PRESENTA

MONICA CARRIOLA MELCHOR

DIANA ANGELICA SANTOS HERNANDEZ

SAMARIA MORALES RUIZ

BEKY DE LA O

LAURA ELENA BERMUDEZ RUIZ

ASESOR

LIZA MARISA DE LA CRUZ BECERRIL

Atlacomulco, Méx. Junio, 2023

 RECEPTIVE AND PRODUCTIVE SKILLS TO DEVELOP ENGLISH SKILLS IN
SECONDARY STUDENTS.

INTRODUCTION

Through our intervention into classrooms, we realized the less development

of students in the four English skills….

That is why through action research and the implementation of the same
through teaching intervention strategies during my internship we will be able to solve
this great current problem present in school classrooms, with text-based approach,
thinking-based learning, communicative approach, flipped classroom and project-
based learning, and after the implementation of those get the results and analyze if
those really work or not.

Key words: text-based approach, thinking-based learning, communicative

approach, project-based learning, flipped classroom, skills.

STATE OF THE ART

Text- based approach is not necessarily new into the language teaching, but
it has gained more attention and popularity in recent years; in the web site called
Sanako (2021), it mentions that this methodology can be traced back to the 1970s.
“Spoken cycle and written cycle have been suggested and implemented by the
Australian School in teaching English to foreign students. In Indonesian contexts,
the same framework has been used to implement TBA since 2004” (Helene, 2020,
p.124).

The objective of this approach is to make students acquainted with several

texts which have a different context. The result will be the following: students will
“produce and understand oral and written discourse in various natural or stimulated
communicative settings in which they participate with a specific and explicit intention”
(Mumba & Mkandawire, 2019, p.126).

Thinking-based learning engages students in active and meaningful learning

experiences that promote the development of critical thinking, problem-solving skills,
and metacognitive awareness. The objective of thinking-based learning is to
empower students to become critical thinkers, effective problem solvers, and lifelong
learners. It equips them with the cognitive abilities and metacognitive strategies
necessary to succeed academically, professionally, and personally.

Overall, thinking-based learning engages students in active, inquiry-based,

and collaborative learning experiences that promote critical thinking, problem-
solving, and metacognitive development. It empowers students to become active
participants in their learning, equipping them with the skills and dispositions
necessary for success in an ever-changing world.

Project based learnig is becoming increasingly popular in ELT classrooms.

The most common projects are class journals, group exhibitions about students'
countries and designs for cities of the future.

Project-based learning is an active method that develops the maximum

involvement and participation of students in the learning process. It requires the
teacher to energize the learning scenario by promoting the cooperation of students
to investigate, make decisions and respond to the challenges of the project. It also
requires activating an evaluation system that promotes awareness, reflexivity and a
critical spirit, facilitating deeper learning. Velázquez (2013)

Flipped learning is sometimes called inverted learning; this, because all the work is
made by the students and the teacher is only a mediator between what the students
do to explain if it is right or wrong; that is to say, to analyze it so that the students are
clearer about the subject.
The term flipped or inverted comes from the idea of swapping homework for class
work. Accordingly, Bishop and Verleger (2013) “defined flipped or inverted instruction
as a reversal of traditional teaching where students gain first exposure to new
materials outside class, usually via reading or lecture videos, and class time is used
to assimilate that knowledge through strategies such as problem-solving, discussion
or debates” (p. 25)

The principal purpose of this investigation is to develop listening comprehension with

my secondary students and to be able to state that the fun classroom has been one
of the best methods to develop it, considering the difficulties we have had in basic
education at a national level.

Facing new perspectives and approaches in language teaching in order to

fulfill the education and education demands to incorporate an innovative response
in the 1970s to grow rapidly such was the beginning of communicative language
teaching (CLT) developed by Littlewood W. (1981)

According to Kaisheng, (2007) The Communicative Language Teaching is

defined as an approach of instruction of a second or a foreign language that focuses
on learners’ interaction whether as the means or the ultimate goal of learning a target
language. Interaction here means an activity in which two or more parties affect upon
one another. CLT refers to communicative approach to the teaching a second or a
foreign language as well. Doubtlessly, it is believed as the most effective approach
focuses on the communicative competence of the learners in many countries.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

WHAT ARE THE RECEPTIVE SKILLS?

 The receptive skills are listening and reading, because learners do not need
to produce language to do these, they receive and understand it. These skills are
sometimes known as passive skills.

“When learning a new language learners tend to develop their receptive skills
first and then acquire productive capability. It’s a complex relationship between the
two as they all play a supporting role with developing other skills” (Receptive Skills,
2023).

WITH READING WE HAVE TEXT-BASED APPROACH

Reading comprehension is the ability human have to understand and to

interpret written text. However, it is important isolate both concepts firstly reading
then comprehension; for reading According to Brown (2004) is a process of:

negotiating meaning to the texts for understanding. In the case, reading is a

way or process to gain information from a text. Reading consists of two related
processes: word recognition and comprehension. Word recognition refers to the
process of perceiving how written symbols correspond to one’s spoken language.
(p.8)

First and foremost, text-based approach to develop reading comprehension

involves focusing on the understanding of written texts, and allowing readers to
extract meaning, make inference, understand syntaxis (the structure of the words,
sentences), it is the only approach which can use to teach grammar. The appliers of
this approach need to use different techniques, resources, and follow the steps this
approach gives.

Now, we must know what the text-based approach is, how it works, what the
features are, so on. National curriculum statement (NCS, 2011), defines this
approach as:

A text-based approach teaches learners to become competent, confident, and

critical readers, writers, viewers, and designers of texts. It involves listening
 to, reading, viewing, and analyzing texts to understand how they are produced
and what their effects are. Through this critical interaction, learners develop
the ability to evaluate texts.

Authentic texts are the main source of content and context for the
communicative, integrated learning and teaching of languages. The text-based
approach also involves producing different kinds of texts for particular purposes and
audiences. This approach is informed by an understanding of how texts are
constructed. (p.16)

Linguam (2017), English FAL curriculum explains the text-based approach as

follows:

A text-based approach explores how texts work. The purpose of a text-based

approach is to enable learners to become competent, confident and critical
readers, writers and viewers of texts. It involves listening to, reading, viewing
and analyzing texts to understand how they are produced and what their
effects are. Through this critical interaction, learners develop the ability to
evaluate texts. The text-based approach also involves producing different
kinds of texts for particular purposes and audiences. This approach is
informed by an understanding of how texts are constructed. This approach
will require quite a lot of modeling, support, and scaffolding in the First
Additional Language classroom. (p.24)

WITH LISTENING COMPRENHENSION – FLIP-CLASSROOM

The Flipped learning-based model is operationally defined as an

instructional model based on the principles of the flipped learning approach in
which students watch recorded lectures about the intended content of the
listening course out of class, then complete assignment and activities under the
guidance of their teacher in class (in-class practices). One where the instructor
moved lecture content, previously presented in class, to the online environment
in digital format such as recorded screen casts, videos of the instructors teaching,
or existing video lessons published on Internet sites.
Listening is an important life skill. It is also important for obtaining comprehensible
input that is necessary for language development. Learners with good listening
comprehension abilities can participate efficiently in class. Therefore, language
teachers should make more effort to improve their students’ listening comprehension
skills. According to Ahmad (2016):

Listening comprehension is operationally defined as the progress participants

achieved in bottom-up and top-down listening comprehension skills as manifested
by the participants' mean scores between the pre and posttest of listening
comprehension. This progress was represented in the ability to predict, guess
meaning, give detailed information, and discriminate sounds. (p. 170)

Listening is one of the four skills when learning a language, but most of the time this
skill is not exploited altogether in ELF lesson in the schools; it could be because they
think that it is better developing the speaking skill rather than the listening and,
because such is a receptive skill, some teachers believe it is much easier to work
with.

Having said that, if we want to improve the listening skill is important to consider and
know 3 different things: first, listening to native speakers might have participants
aware of the difficulties involved in understanding authentic spoken English. This
may lead them to make more effort to improve their listening comprehension.
Second, the presence of nonverbal communication (e.g., facial expressions and
gestures) might have been helpful for participants' listening comprehension. Third,
the technical features of the videos (e.g., pauses, review, etc.) could have provided
participants with opportunities to analyze and comprehend the language presented.
Many studies have shown that the use of videos improves listening comprehension.
WHAT ARE THE PRODUCTIVE SKILLS?

“The productive skills are speaking and writing, because learners doing
these need to produce language. They are also known as active skills”
(Productive, 2023).

WRITING WILL BE DEVELOPED WITH THINKING-BASED LEARNING.

The seek for covering such instruction demand becomes a harsh when
students’ foreign language is not alike, or even methods, approaches, techniques or
activities are not motivating enough to fulfill social practices of the subject program,
class objectives; therefore, the problem statement of this research paper is not to
show if those approaches, methods, teachers teaching experience or activities are
well organized but, this paper attempts to present thinking-based learning.

I discovered in an article the new trend to teach and get the students attention,
this shows attractive purposes, first according with Malik (2022):

Thinking based Learning (TBL) has taken the shape of a new and latest pedagogy
which focuses on facilitating learning through active role of learners. TBL advocates
the game-changer role of thinking in learning. It is an active methodology which
teaches students to learn, think, reason, analyze and take appropriate decisions.
Vision of TBL is not only confined to acquisition of knowledge but extends to enable
learners apply the learned facts and concepts in real life situation. It breaks the
monotony in learning thereby making learning interesting, joyful, entertaining and
engaging. (p. 87)

So now we have to answer, how to apply the TBL? As it is known this model
is focused in the student using the constructivism approach, and here this has four
phases to develop it, those are: Introduction, Engage, Reflection and Transfer
(IERT). This means that we have to organize our lessons or our topic with those four
phases to achieve the students´ knowledge based on what Mohd, Zamzamir and
Othman (2019) mention:

This model proposes four basic components that need to be designed in TBL
where learners are able to clearly define their thinking process or aware of the
thinking skills, engage in a thought-provoking process, providing an important
opportunity for students to know the type of thinking involved and to relate the
existing knowledge and experience with the knowledge gained from exploration. (p.
398)

There are several authors who have discussed and written about thinking-
based learning methods. Here are a few notable authors in the field:

1. Edward de Bono: Edward de Bono is a renowned author and psychologist

known for his work on thinking and creativity. He has written extensively on the topic
of thinking skills and has developed techniques such as lateral thinking and the Six
Thinking Hats method.

2. Robert Swartz: Robert Swartz is an expert in the area of teaching thinking

and critical thinking skills. He has written books such as "Infusing the Teaching of
Critical and Creative Thinking into Content Instruction" and "Teaching Thinking:
Issues and Approaches."

3. Art Costa and Bena Kallick: Art Costa and Bena Kallick are the authors of
the Habits of Mind series, which focuses on cultivating thinking dispositions and
habits that lead to successful learning. Their books, such as "Habits of Mind: A
Developmental Series" and "Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind," provide
practical strategies for teaching and developing thinking skills.

4. David Perkins: David Perkins is a professor at the Harvard Graduate

School of Education and an expert on teaching for understanding and critical
thinking. He has written books like "Making Learning Whole: How Seven Principles
of Teaching Can Transform Education" and "Smart Schools: Better Thinking and
Learning for Every Child."
 5. Richard Paul and Linda Elder: Richard Paul and Linda Elder are prominent
figures in the field of critical thinking. They have co-authored books such as "Critical
Thinking: The Nature of Critical and Creative Thought" and "Critical Thinking: Tools
for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life," which provide frameworks and
strategies for developing critical thinking skills.

These authors have contributed significantly to the understanding and

implementation of thinking-based learning methods in various educational contexts.
Exploring their works can provide valuable insights and practical approaches to
fostering critical thinking and enhancing learning outcomes.

Aguila (2014) systematizes the characteristics of thinking, considering

particularly those that can be explicitly worked on in the classroom:

• Inferences, assumes, analyzes and evaluates.

• Makes judgments, reasons, reflects.
• Seeks solutions, makes decisions.
• Gives opinions, argues.
• Constructs, conceptualizes.
• Processes, describes, interprets, groups and orders, categorizes.

COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH METHOD TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILL

According to Kaisheng, (2007) Communicative Language Teaching is defined

as an approach of instruction of a second or a foreign language that focuses on
learners’ interaction whether as the means or the goal of learning a target language.
Interaction here means an activity in which two or more parties affect one another.
CLT refers to a communicative approach to the teaching of a second or a foreign
language as well. Doubtlessly, it is believed that the most effective approach focuses
on the communicative competence of the learners in many countries.

Speaking as defined operationally by Brown, H. (2001) in this paper as the

secondary stage students' ability to express themselves orally, coherently, fluently
and appropriately in each meaningful context to serve both transactional and
interactional purposed using correct pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary and
adopting the pragmatic and discourse rules of the spoken language. In other words,
they are required to show mastery of the following sub competencies or skills.

APPROACH PROJECT-BASED LEARNING PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

(PBL) OR PROJECT-BASED INSTRUCTION

It is an instructional approach designed to give students the opportunity to

develop knowledge and skills through engaging projects set around challenges and
problems they may face in the real world.

Project-based learning is more than just “doing a project,” in the way you
might remember from your own school days. As the Buck Institute for Education
(BIE) explains, with PBL, students “investigate and respond to an authentic,
engaging, and complex problem or challenge” with deep and sustained attention.1
Acrochordids, an organization that provides STEAM programs for young learners,
puts it even more succinctly: PBL is “learning by doing.

METHOD

Action research help us as English teachers to learn through our action and
better both personal and professionally. Elliot gave us the opportunity to learn in a
way where we can fail and start again, if our results were not as we had expected
with a diagram that he called “spiral”, into it we can find cycles, each cycle has its
own purpose, and objective. Adding, this action research uses qualitative
methodology, because here I will describe and my research investigation, I mean, I
shall argue and describe strategies, methodologies, approach, which I will apply in
my practices to better a problem.

Qualitative design is a modality of approaching the study of educational

phenomena that is especially useful for studying educational contexts in their natural
environment, so, it focuses on a deep and detailed understanding of the phenomena
from the perspective of the people involved. That is the reason, in this document we
are working with the help of qualitative research.

Lewin's action research model the term action research was first coined by the social
psychologist Kurt Lewin (see Kemmis 1980). Lewin's model involves a "spiral of
cycles." The basic cycle of activities is to identify a general idea, recognize the plan,
develop an action step, implement the first action step, conduct, and review the plan
from this basic cycle, the investigators move on to development of the second action
stage implementation evaluation review of the plan developing the third action step
implementation evaluation and so on (Elliott.1991,78-83).

HYPOTHESIS

The secondary students’ skills will be developed through text-based

approach, thinking-based learning, communicative approach, project-based learning
and flipped classroom.

CONCLUSIONS
A text-based approach to develop reading comprehension involves focusing on the
understanding of written texts, and allowing readers to extract meaning, make
inference, understand syntaxis (the structure of the words, sentences), it is the only
approach that can use to teach grammar. Text-based approach gives the
opportunities to guide students to develop their reading comprehension skills, in
order to they and teachers follow a correct set of steps and stages.

Thinking-based learning (also known as cognitive-based learning or cognitive

education) refers to educational approaches that emphasize the development of
critical thinking skills, metacognition, problem-solving abilities, and deep
understanding of concepts. These approaches aim to go beyond rote memorization
and encourage students to engage in higher-order thinking processes. The objective
of thinking-based learning is to develop students' thinking skills, cognitive abilities,
and metacognitive awareness. It aims to go beyond rote memorization and surface-
level understanding of information, and instead focuses on fostering deeper
comprehension, critical thinking, problem-solving, and independent learning.

In the implementation of this training methodology, a new way of generating and

developing learning is consequently activated, applying a cooperative work model,
with the management of group activity to tackle the project being a vital aspect.

In relation to the cooperative dynamics of operation of the PBL experiences

developed, the application of a methodological model is observed which is based,
as a starting point, on the cooperative structures with which it is intended that the
students approach the project: the students have to combine the knowledge, skills
and attitudes they learn, in a shared manner with their classmates, to tackle the tasks
and carry out the project proposed and presented by the lecturer.

To conclude with all this, it is important to mention that the listening development
skills using the inverted classroom has been favorable and brings good results; but
it is also a great challenge not only for me as a teacher who coordinates all the
activities but also for the students who in many cases try to do their best and give
their best effort but due to their difficulties it is impossible to go to a cyber and do the
work alone and this lack of fulfillment limits the program.

In conclusion, and as mentioned by Harmer J. (1982), the main goal of CLT is to get
learners to communicate fluently, adding that "CLT now functions as a general term
to describe learning sequences whose aim is to improve learners' communication
skills", in contrast to "teaching whose aim is rather to learn linguistic fragments just
because they exist, without focusing on their use in communication". Considering
that CLT was proclaimed as one of the best methods in the past, today it offers
learners the opportunity to acquire meaningful communicative experience.
Based on the above, high school students could achieve this perspective of
conveying ideas and conveying meaningful experiences to ideas, projects,
contextual situations or individual tasks inside and outside the classroom.