Supporting EFL Learning in Marginalized Children through Designing Contextualized

Didactic Materials

Luis Miguel Murcia Urrego

Jheferson Camacho Correa

Guided By

Eulices Córdoba

Universidad de la Amazonia

Educational Sciences faculty

English Language Teaching Program

Research II

Florencia-Caquetá

2017

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Contenido

Chapter I.……………………………………………………………………………………………. 3
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................3
Description of the Problem...................................................................................................................5
Justification..........................................................................................................................................7
Objectives.............................................................................................................................................9
Research Question................................................................................................................................9
Chapter II……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..10
State of Art…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..11
Theoretical Framework…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………15
Chapter III……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………25
Methodology………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..25
Data Collection…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….26
Ethical Considerations………………………………………………………………………………27
TimeLine Activities…………………………………………………………………………………29
Budget.................................................................................................................................................30
References…………………………………………………………………………………………..31

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 Chapter I

Introduction

Mastering the English language has been one of the major challenges to face in

current educational systems. Recent studies from FAO & UNESCO (2004a, 2004b) argue

that rural areas are an underdeveloped sector within developing countries. The lack of

access to adequate education, health and nutrition services due to state of poverty in which

they are found does not give them the necessary conditions to leave it. Furthermore, the

backwardness of rural areas in developing countries is particularly noticeable when

analyzing the education sector. For that reason, this project aims at designing and

implementing a booklet as a didactic material which will contain contextualized knowledge

that supports the students to achieve and acquire the necessary grammar, speaking, reading

and writing abilities that are supposed to be learned in primary grades according to

Common European Framework in the English language.

Although there are previous studies evaluating the impact of educational resources,

a few are focus on programs specifically targeted at a sector as vulnerable as the rural

sector, as in the case of (Róman, 2002) , (Bustos, 2007). Therefore, in this document will be

demonstrated and provided additional evidence in terms at designing and implementing

didactic materials because they are a variable alternatives to decrease educational

weaknesses in rural context with the use of materials which make the students interest in

new methodologies of learning the target language as a contextualized tool to give social

reinsertion. Finally, following those arguments the community will be provided of

materials which will give them the opportunity to overcome the problem they are actually

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facing, and to do so, the project is going to be focus on the context to design different

methodologies of learning, in this case, didactic materials.

Due to its geographic location and its socioeconomic conditions in Bolivia village,

the rural primary school “La Concordia” does not have the support to study English classes;

it means the students have never been taught successfully in that subject. Additionally, this

material would work as an important tool to improve the teacher´s practice to enhance the

teaching process, and provide a solid learning tool that allows the students to achieve

higher goals in English learning; in this direction, the students are going to have the

opportunity to understand and comprehend new different ways of learning. Moreover, to

follow the established in the law 115, 1994 in which claims that the acquisition of elements

of conversation, reading, comprehension and ability to express in at least one foreign

language is demanded.

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 Description of the Problem

Marginalized children are the ones who have had economic, social, and

cultural problems due to the consequences of several years of war, and also they have been

forgotten by the government forces, it means that they have never had a quality education

to improve themselves. Colombian government produces and releases supporting and

didactic materials. They are often used within the educational environment to facilitate the

acquisition of concepts, skills and attitudes in schools and high schools in order to improve

the children’s educative development, and also to evolve the teaching process. Not only

Spanish material is created but also English material because the government has a

bilingual program since 2004, and it is suppose that Colombia should be a bilingual country

for 2019; as (El-Fiki, 2012) claims that with the internationalization of English there is a

growing demand for high quality English language education around the globe, particularly

in non-English speaking countries. Additionally, the systematic use of didactic resources

written in English certainly improves the linguistic competence, as (Blue, 1993 ) suggest

the most important factor that needs to be considered in relation to academic success is

simply proficiency in the language structure.

For this reason, it is necessary to create a quality material to achieve the

bilingualism goal. Even though, the government have not taken into account marginalized

communities; this is the case of a primary school called “La Concordia” which is located in

a village near Cartagena del Chaira. In this institution, there is a lack of educational

resources; there is just one teacher to teach seven different grades, it means the educator has

to be attentive to four different grades at the same time in one day. In addition, students

seem to lose their attitude about learning new subjects due to there are not enough materials

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to teach them. Moreover, the school facilities, more exactly the classrooms are in a poor

state, so they are not appropriated to have classes in there. Finally, but not less important,

the English class is not taught there. According to the law 115, 8 th February, 1994 all

children must have a quality and complete education, especially the ones who were

marginalized or displaced by war or other circumstances. As (Ferreira, 2006) claims that

there cannot be social changes with alienated people, and the criticism is directed towards

education and knowledge.

Consequently, this is a methodological proposal oriented to support the students by

putting at their disposal an approach for the implementation in the classroom, different

didactic strategies, which have been structured with reference to develop the necessary

competences with them. In short, the material that will be created would also be as tool that

teachers may follow to make better the learning academic process.

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 Justification

Marginalization has been one of the main problems why communities who have

been devastated by war do not count with the necessary resources to achieve an optimal

education that improve their life condition. The law 115, 1994 establishes that the

acquisition of elements of conversation, reading, comprehension and ability to express in at

least one foreign language is demanded, as well in the bilingualism law 1651, 2013;

however, those laws are not being taken into account because the students are having low

levels, especially in rural areas where the students are not taking English classes. This

project is important because currently rural people do not have the necessary materials for

the development of English teaching; it has created educational problems in children who

were marginalized. For this reason, it is necessary to help and strengthen this community

that has been devastated by war and violence a few years ago; furthermore, it is also

pertinent since this place being so far from the public area; it has never been taken into

account in research areas. Additionally, it will be differentiated from other studies because

with the creation of academic materials, the opportunity to improve their life will be

provided not only for those scholars who are currently in the primary school, but also for all

those new generations who want to learn English.

The main purpose of this proposal is to design a didactic material to support and

strengthen the second language learning in the rural primary school La Concordia. This is

important because English is not part in the school’s curriculum, and it is known that

English as a subject is demanded in any educational institution according with the law 115,

1994. Therefore, it is pertinent to provide them with English subject in order to comply

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with the provisions of the law. This study will have several benefits; firstly, as for the

students, they will get a dynamic material in which will obtain a significant English

learning, and also to become active agents of its own learning in order to master and

appropriate a second language that allows them to acquire efficient communicative skills.

Additionally, to enhance the quality of students’ life because the need to learn a second

language gains a greater importance to participate in fields such as education, science,

culture and labor.

Secondly, as to the theory, this study will enrich the theory of language learning by

showing how the didactic materials could be used to enhance EFL learners in a

marginalized community. Besides, to provide new knowledge about the designing of proper

didactic material to face and overcome social situation in where the students are involved.

Plus, this work will support the theory of language by supplying the necessary topics to

make them acquire the foreign language in an easily way.

Finally, as for the social context, to enforce the right of this community to a quality

education and also the possibility to communicate in a second language; also, to make

known the situation of this community in order to be taken into account in future

investigations and projects.

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 Objectives

General Objective

 To support EFL learning through contextualized didactic materials that will

develop the abilities of grammar, reading, speaking and writing in

marginalized children from La Concordia primary school.

Specific Objectives

 To design the pertinent contextualized material for those marginalized

children.

 To implement the didactic material in the village.

 To analyze the impact with the given support according with the didactic

material.

Research Question

To what extent contextualized didactic materials will support EFL learning in a

marginalized school from La Concordia primary school?

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 Chapter II

State of Art

Many Latin American countries have been developing different methodologies and

technics for English learning in order to reach the bilingualism; however, this objective has

been promoted in urban areas while rural areas have not been taken into account. It has

generated a big problem due to a great quantity of people from those countries belong to

rural communities, thus English learning has been forgotten in that places. Several

mechanisms are being established to enhance the learning process and encourage the

students ‘motivation to acquire the second language. This review focuses on supporting

didactic materials as a tool to enrich EFL learning in a marginalized rural community; for

that reason, the following articles are going to show the improvements that all those

countries have had as for the international, national, and regional projects related to didactic

materials to support the rural areas.

International Studies

English Teachers as materials developers

This article from Costa Rica talks about the necessity of creating essential and

pertinent materials for the development of abilities to learn the target language not only in

the urban areas, but also in the most complicated places where the lack of projects are not

presented, and it is the rural areas. Moreover, this project aims at adapting every single

material in a real context in order to modernize the methodology that all the professor from

those places are using to teach the second language. This work pretends to make the

professor good managers in the creation of didactic materials which allow the students to be

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more efficient and comprehensible agents in the speaking, writing, reading, and grammar

abilities. Additionally, the content that must be in the academic didactic materials should

follow some steps in order to produce a good material: identification, exploration,

contextual realization, pedagogical realization and physical production; consequently, those

booklets need to have the enough tools that will help the students to reach the necessary

level that is established in the Common European Framework. This article provides

important information because as future developers of our own material, we need to be

focused on the methodology to create a pertinent booklet.

Challenges Encountered by Teachers in Rural Areas and Strategies to Triumph Over

In this project produced in India country, claims that even after years of learning

English at school, many students fail to learn the language. They are unable to

communicate freely in the language. This work aims at recognizing multiplies problems

that are facing the students who are no capable to talk in the correct way, especially the

ones who are in the rural areas; it has created lack of disadvantages for the teachers at the

school. Among the difficulties encountered are easily distinguished a negative attitude,

negative attitude exhibited by the teacher, lack of motivation, lack of aptitude, and so on.

Even though, those complications are difficult to overcome, the use of complemented

materials is useful to break these weaknesses. Our point of view is that this article tells us

the possible difficulties that are going to be found in the rural location and it shows us the

pertinent solution to overcome the problems in the student’s attitude to go beyond the

complication and supply them with contextualized information that they can use to learn

the second language freely.

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Developing Learning Materials for Specific Purposes

This investigation from Indonesia University talks about the specific necessities of

creating materials to teach the foreign language. This paper aims at discussing materials

development from the theoretical points of view of its principles and procedures of the

development through its practical undertaking from evaluating, adapting, supplementing

and creating own materials. The finality of this paper is to create the specific material for

teaching English that can help the students in a successful way because the availability of

the ESP learning materials in public and rural areas is very rare; for that reason, developing

those booklets the professors are going to apply the principles and procedures of language

teaching materials to include their own teaching objectives. This article has been very

useful for us because now we could understand the processes that are necessary when

inventing a didactic learning material; additionally, the important adaptation that must be

pertinent for the learners who are being taught. Finally, all the steps must be followed in

order to create successful materials which work as a guide for the students competences.

National studies

English teaching through Project based learning method in rural area.

This article talks about the lack of motivation that students from rural areas have

towards EFL. In addition, it seeks if the “project based learning” which is an instructional

model to reach specifics goals, could enhance the pupils’ aptitudes as well as the

development of some English skills. Furthermore, this study shows whether the learning

process is closely related with the relationship between students and teachers, and how this

relation can be improved. Apparently, the PBL method will be a useful tool to enrich the

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learning process through active learning, making the students more autonomous and

compromised with their process; moreover, the teacher and the students should go beyond

in their relationship in order to improve both the pupils’ self-confidence and the teacher’s

guidance skills.

English language teaching in rural areas: A new challenge for English language

teachers in Colombia.

This case study shows the different challenges and issues that are presented in EFL

learning in rural schools, and why teachers do not take into account the possibility to teach

in rural areas. In addition, it indicates some aspects that a rural teacher must develop, for

instance multitasking, sociocultural skills and adaption to the rural environment are some

the dares that teachers face in those kinds of communities. However, there are other

features presented in rural centers that can affect the teachers’ performance such as: the

lack of motivation by the pupils, the infrastructure and the family’s ideology in terms of

education or the acquisition of a second language. Thus, the authors give strategies and

techniques in order to design programs or materials in which the community could take part

in the objectives of that program; therefore, those methods are likely to be beneficial tools

to enhance the English learning process in rural communities.

CLIL: Colombia leading into content language learning

This article suggests that adopting content and language integrated learning (CLIL)

could be suitable in order to reach the bilingualism goal in Colombia. Besides, it shows the

four main aspects that have to be improved to achieve the objective; First, the language

learning approach which seeks for extend the use of the target language in other academic

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subjects. Second, the need for educators with pertinent qualities to teach a second language.

Third, select the proper contextualized material in order to achieve the target language.

Finally, the intercultural competence which put in contrast the mother language and the

second language in order to enrich the learning by using different situations that pupil can

relate with their environment. CLIL seems to be a useful method, yet the implementation of

that strategy might be a big challenge for Colombian education system if it is taking into

account that there are still gaps in terms of second language acquisition in rural schools.

Theoretical Framework

This study will show the different methods to create or design proper didactic

materials which will support students from a specific rural area with the purpose of

enhancing EFL learning. In order to reach the objectives, it is pertinent to have an

appropriate knowledge about what a didactic material is, and what are the purposes of using

those elements in the classroom. In this order of ideas, it is also necessary to comprehend

that these materials must have a real adaptation depending on the context and the needs that

students probably have. Additionally, is obligatory to be part of the context in order to

recognize what kind of English education the students are receiving in that particular place.

Since this study pretends to work with marginalized communities, it is significant to

understand that the majority of those people are children who have been violated their

educational rights. For that reason, this research aims at enforcing children´s rights like the

Colombian Bilingualism Law which claims that every single person should be able to

understand and speak in at least one foreign language.

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Didactic Material

Didactic materials have been one of the most used instruments for educational

systems to promote the learning of different subjects, among them the English

language. Those didactic resources have been defined by quite a few authors who have

given multiplies definitions about them. According to Prats (1997), who established that

those materials facilitate the learning of intellectual abilities and the proposal proto

types that stimulate the construction of the knowledge. In contrast with this, one of the

simplest and least successful definitions is from Dolch (1952), who claimed that all

didactic materials are oriented to get a general teaching, but this is a poor concept

because these resources must be focused on just one specific learning subject in order to

reach better results. On the other hand, according to Guerrero (2009), suggested that

didactic materials should be end-oriented and organized according to the curriculum

reference criteria; however, this appreciation does not apply to rural education centers

which do not have a well-organized educational curriculum. A theory that could support

the previous one is from Cook (1983) who proposed different features to take into

account such as the knowledge about the subject, the culture, the topic of interest, and

the language that is studied, this it is not observed in rural educational institutions

because in those centers the curriculum is poorly designed, so it can be evidenced the

gaps in the teaching and learning process. For that reason, Nérici (1973) suggested that

those didactic tools are intended to lead the students to work, to research, to discover,

and to build; the previous statement encloses everything what education should aim.

The systematic uses of educational resources written in English certainly improve

the student´s competences. In relation to this, Blue (1993) said that the most important

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 factor that needs to be consider in relation to academic success is simply proficiency in

the language of instruction; it means that to achieve a good language manage, it is

necessary to provide the correct parameters used in the materials to handle a

satisfactory instruction. Thus, Imbernon (1994) complemented that those materials have

to promote experiences, to develop student´s participation, and to provide

contextualized knowledge. Finally as Tonucci (1979), Gimeno (1983) and Porlan

(1987) coincided that through the didactic materials students could be able to construct

a personal and meaningful learning in order to bridge the learning gaps; it means that

those resources must have as contextualized as possible because the students need to

feel comfortable while they are acquiring the second language.

Didactic materials adaptation

In the previous definition, we were discussing about Didactic materials, its purposes

and to what extend those materials are pertinent to teach. Nevertheless, in this we will

discuss about the adaption of those materials and their important in order to enhance the

learning process. In this order of ideas, several authors that has contributed with the field

are going to be used as reference.

Adaptation is the altering of materials in order to improve, or make them more

suitable for a particular type of learner or group of learners (Dickinson, 2010). In contrast,

(Fernandez & Leon, 2016) said that teachers adapt didactic material when the existing ones

need to be used for a different purpose; consequently, teachers present the didactic material

changing what it initially intended to promote, and modifying the purpose of the activity to

support the teaching strategies applied in a new activity. For that reason, the inclusion of

teaching materials in a given educational context requires the teacher, or the designer to be

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clear about the main roles that materials can play in the teaching-learning process. In this

way, (Fernandez & Leon, 2016) asserted that by being aware of the variety of didactic

material and equipment, teachers are able to decide which didactic material to use, adapt,

and/or develop according to the context, and more importantly, the topic to teach.

Additionally, (Tomlinson, 1998) remarked that there are several principles to take

into account in order to develop and adapt teaching materials: Materials should achieve

impact. Materials should expose the learners to language in authentic use. Materials should

maximize learning potential by encouraging intellectual, aesthetic and emotional

involvement. Taking into account the context in which it is to be developed and where it is

intended to use such material. Accordingly, the creation of didactic materials should not be

random, instead they should be coherent and take into account the previous

recommendations provided by Tomlinson. On the other hand, the evaluation of those

materials are related with the adaptation, since by means of this it could be given a value

judgment about how relevant is the material; likewise, (Guerrero, 2009) suggested when

evaluating the teaching materials, what is intended is to have clear references that will help

us to determine if those materials are the more suitable for the programmed purposes.

Furthermore, (Careaga & Nissim, 1997) also asserted that the decisions that the teacher

makes are as correct as possible, the evaluation must contemplate each and every one of the

different elements that influence the instructional process, and it is in this context that the

evaluation of the didactic materials makes sense.

In order to evaluate the materials, teachers have instruments of evaluation to

respond how pertinent those materials are. Hence, (Guerrero, 2009) provided common

evaluating instruments that are taking into account in the evaluation process; however, each

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of them presents its advantages and limitations, which leads us to combine several of them.

Questionnaires or scales of opinion, Interviews, Observation, Programs’ technical design,

and Discussion groups.

To sum up, the different types of adaptation based on several dimensions make this

characteristic constantly evaluated in the educational material, so it is clear that not only

one should get benefit from a wide variety of resources but one should consider many

dimensions of evaluation to reach the ultimate aim of teaching-learning process.

Rural English Education

According with the previous study in which is shown the adaptation of materials to

reach specific abilities in those marginalized children who are the most important part of

the country, it is necessary to understand that one of the most important problem in the

current century has to do with the lack of education that rural context are receiving

specifically in the English subject. Nowadays, Colombia country is facing the necessity of

better implementations of education in places which are so far away from the urban area

more exactly in English education. For that reason, students are presenting some problems

when listening and producing knowledge of English; the students are presenting bad

behaviors about the subject because they never have been taught in that matter.

Additionally, the main problem is the lack of advantages that those places have about the

foreign language which have made the learners not to be competent in high grades when

they have to take English classes. Then, some thoughts are going to be exposed in order to

support the theory of learning in rural areas.

Rural English education is one of the big challenges that the country has to apply in

isolated places or rural areas, but this goal has not been fulfilled in most of the rural parts.

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Rural English education has been defined for several authors who have given their points of

view about it to be able to say that English education in rural areas is defiance for all the

professors. According with this Mulkeen (2005) asserted that teachers in rural areas also

find cultural isolation, but this is not certainly true because there are rural places where

meetings are celebrated in order to gain funds to its development every weekend.

Differently, (Barley and Briham, 2005) established that another problem is the cultural

adaptation to the rural environment, in terms of daily routines and the culture of the

community and the students. This is the major issue when working in rural areas because

sometimes there are professors who are from places where the culture is totally different. In

addition, Castle (1995) claimed the fact that in some rural communities teachers have to

teach multi-level classes is not attractive to the prospective professor, not even mentioning

salaries. As a consequence of that, English classes are hardly taught in specific places

where teachers are not being paid. Furthermore, (Majid, Muhammad, Puteh, and Bunari,

2008) proclaimed that another important worry is that the importance of English as a global

language remains abstract to students that hardly travel outside their county; usually they

only have contact with the nearest town, so English is a rarity not connected to their lives.

According with those thinkers we can say that certainly the use of English as a global

language is almost impossible because here in Colombia few of the students can go outside

their native lands to continue studying.

Another pertinent aspect to say is that most of the primary schools in rural places

are poorly adequate to give basic and not enough content in the case of English. In the same

way, (The Colombian ten-year Plan for Rural Education 2006-2016) suggested that rural

school are in need of appropriate infrastructure, didactic and technological resources for a

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better learning, rural schools do not have the implements and equipment to teach classes

with relative success. Correspondingly, Moulton (2010) said that while in many cases

building materials and furniture can be locally supplied, instructional materials are not

available. These last points of view are the ones which are closely to the reality of the

country because there some places where there are no any kind of supplement to develop

knowledge in the students, but also there are places where those supplies are presented but

the educational resources are quite misappropriated to achieve an adequate education

Marginalization

There are many authors of chapters or books that write about marginalization or

certain groups that they consider social marginalized. Hence, this section will expose and

contrast the different concepts and characteristics based on the opinion, or the point of view

of several authors who belong to the field of psychology and sociology.

According to (Masse, 1965) and (Lenoir, 1974) In the 1960s, in France, the term

marginalization was coined to refer to individuals who are not integrated into networks

producers of wealth and social recognition; in contrast, Consejo Nacional de Población

(CONAPO, 1998) claims that this concept is objectified in localities and municipalities

through three dimensions: education, housing and monetary incomes, while for the state

level is added to them the dispersion of population. In this order of ideas, the previous

definitions not only refer to specifics situations but also to the social and relational

dimensions of them; it means, the process that leads to serious situations of lack and the

relation with the social structure. Likewise, in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy

(1992) showed the concept of marginalization and other derivatives such as: the

20
marginalized person or group not integrated into society; and, Marginal are the people or

groups that live and act outside the social norms commonly accepted.

The previous concepts provided by the Royal Spanish Academy make us reflect that

the majority or the dominant group is the one that ignores certain social groups placing

them outside of society. On the other hand, (Fundación Sol Hachuel, 1989) understands

marginalization as any individual or collective situation far from the center of power,

wealth or use of possibilities. Nevertheless, (Andersen, 2010) says that not only refers to

economic deprivation but also refers to other dimensions such as access and use of services;

Thus, should be considered as a process related to the needs and possibilities of having an

adequate quality of life, additionally is related to the different situations of deprivation and

obstacles to develop life in a given social context. As (Ayerbe, 2000) claimed,

marginalization it is a multidimensional process because it encompasses, or can encompass,

body, affective, social and labor dimensions. In addition, systematizes some variables of

marginality that can be observed to some extent such as: Inadequate relationships between

the subject and the environment. The difficulty to develop cognitive, social and relational

potentialities, the perception of the lack of value and appreciation on the part of the society.

The absence of material or immaterial elements necessary to allow an acceptable social

participation (economic, social, cultural, school and work).

To sum up, the situation of exclusion is not easy to deal with, since it is defined as a

reality that affects several dimensions of the development of the person's life and its

possibilities to have a suitable life; for that reason, the deficiencies in some or several of

these elements give rise to situations of social unrest.

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Bilingualism

In Colombia, the General Education Act 115 (1994) stated that one of the objectives

of education should be the acquisition of speaking, reading and comprehension skills in at

least one foreign language, making it the starting point for the creation of new regulations

regarding the teaching and learning of foreign languages in Colombia. Currently,

bilingualism is one of the goals of many countries around the world because of the

advantages that it produces. Unfortunately, this beautiful dream has not been presented in

communities who were marginalized by the government and the war consequences as well.

Colombia is one of the Latin American countries which have had to suffer more than fifty

years of war, so it made hundreds of people leave their homes and to move into rural areas

to work for surviving. Besides, those communities did not have the opportunity to be

educated and now a few numbers of children are attending to schools to receive the

necessary level of knowledge, but it not enough because there are important subjects like

English and others that are not being taken into account when teaching them.

To reach the bilingualism, several strategies had to be applied in order to get

adequate level of English language use, but there are some important authors who claimed

their ideas in relation with this topic. Lightbown & Spada (1999) suggested that is

necessary to be exposed to the second language one or two hours even for seven or eight

years; however, in the schools more exactly in rural places the English subject is not even

taught. In addition to this, Cardenas (2006) remarked that what extend of Colombian

proposal has considered those regions where English is not a priority for the educational

system, it means remote rural areas and so on. In our opinion this remark is totally true

taking into account that exist several places where English is not taught due to the difficult

22
abscess to learn it. On the other hand, González & Quinchía (2003) and González, Sierra &

Salazar (2005) particularly explored the roles of teacher educators in Colombia and suggest

that knowing the local realities is as relevant as having a good command of the L2 when it

comes to professional development. It means the challenge that professors must face when

teaching the second language to be able to manage all the difficulties found in any place.

Bilingual programs have made use of communicative approaches in order to

guarantee the provision of opportunities for interaction. Under these circumstances,

Ministerio de Educación Nacional de Colombia (2004, Programa de Bilingüismo) said that

mastering a foreign language represents a comparative advantage, and attribute of its

competence and its competitiveness. Our point of view about this is that is pertinent to

create strategies for the development of communicative competences in English because

the country needs to be in the same level of other bigger countries.

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 Chapter III

Methodology

In this chapter is going to be provided the method, the design, the data collection

instruments, the ethical considerations; finally, the activities timeline, and the budget in

order to make the project as supported as possible. Additionally, this chapter will show how

the study was carry out in the community taking into account all the learned strategies to

solve the problem in the town.

Design and Method

This is a narrative research study. It is an umbrella term that captures personal and

human dimensions of experiences over time, and takes into account the relationship

between individual experiences and cultural context, (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). Hence,

narrative research is a means by which we systematically gather, analyze, and represent

people’s stories as told by them; which challenges traditional and modernist views of truth,

reality, knowledge, and personhood.

Additionally, this narrative research study used qualitative method because during

the study some questionnaires, observations and interviews are going to be applied in order

to obtain complete information of the process. Qualitative data consists of open-ended

information that the researcher usually gathers through interviews, focus groups, and

observations. The analysis of the qualitative data typically follows the path of aggregating it

into categories of information and presenting the diversity of ideas gathered during data

collection, (FoodRisC, 2015).

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Data Collection

Based on the phenomenological design of the study, we are going to use three data

collection instruments.

Observation: According to (RWJF, 2008) it is a systematic data collection instrument that

researchers use all their senses to examine people in natural settings or naturally occurring

situations. In this order of ideas, with this data collection instruments we will acquire some

activities, behaviors in front of the class, perception and feeling about the project that we

are going to implement with them. Finally, we will adapt those observations into field

notes.

Interview: (Johnson, R, 2008) argues that interviewing involves asking questions and

getting answers from participants in a study; in addition, this data collection tool has two

ways to be conducted, semi-structured and structured interview. The purpose of this

instrument is to get some stories from the people who belong at that community in order to

select the best ones to create the content of the booklet. Finally, this instrument will allow

us to gather the most pertinent stories and experiences from the war ages.

Questionnaire: Is essentially structured technique for collecting primary data. It is

generally a series of written questions for which the respondents have to provide the

answers, (Bell, as cited by Sasigain & Pardina, 2013, p.26). The purpose of this data

collection instrument will be to put into practice some diagnostic tests to check the level of

English that those children have, and to be able to create the booklet with enough content

according with their level. At the end, we will choose the topics to work.

25
Context

This project is going to be carried out at La Concordia primary school which is

located near Cartagena del Chiara, Caquetá. Moreover, in some aspects it is organized

according to the educational laws, and it has its own curriculum. The curriculum is an

official document which includes subjects, syllabi, relevant topics, and helpful materials,

(UNESCO, 2009-2014). However, this school does not contain the English class in its

curriculum. Besides, there is just one teacher for all the subjects, so there is just one shift

for entire school.

Participants

This project is going to be carried out at La Concordia primary school in the unique

shift with all the five grades it has. We decided to use purposeful sampling, since we need

to identify the specific characteristics for the participants. They must be five students with

the following features: Basic expressive skills belonged to lower class, face war

consequences, and the ages between thirteen and sixteen years old. Then, the consents are

going to be sent to parents of the selected students for permission to participate in this

study.

Ethical Considerations

The exercise of scientific research whether qualitative and quantitative, and the use

of knowledge produced by the sciences both natural and social should be consider social

practices that might affect matters of everyday life, (Hernandez, 2005). In this sense, it is

demand ethical behaviors in the researcher, and the co-investigator, personal and social

commitments, respect to the groups or individuals involved in the research process and in

26
relation to the knowledge generated from it. Therefore, we are going to take into account

the following ethical considerations: Everything must be private, asking for permission

both parents and the school directives, the use of pseudonyms as for the participants, and

finally the students are allowed to leave the study whenever they want.

27
 1. ACTIVITIES TIMELINE
Concept Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4
January-March
May-June July-september October-
December

General Objective

Specific Objective #1

Goal 1

To design the pertinent Diagnosis phase and designing the .At this time, the The
contextualized didactic contextualized materials with life questionnaire is classification of
material for those stories. going to be the participants
marginalized children. Activity #1 conducted to to carry out the
collect opinions recollection of
and believes. data, and
material
design.

Specific Objective # 2

Goal 1

To implement the Activity #1 Planning, Project description. Interviews are Implementation

didactic material in the going to be of the material
school carried out to in the group of
enrich the participants.
information
. obtained
previously.

Specific objetive # 3

Goal 1

To analyze the impact Activity #1 Evaluation of the impact of the Observation of Interpretation
with the given support teaching materials to support EFL the participants and analysis of
according with the with the teaching the information
didactic material material collected with
the three
previous data
collection
instruments

28
 2. BUDGET
4.1 Program Cost, Project or Activity

Detail Quantity Unid Prize Total Prize

ADQUISICIÓN DE SERVICIOS

Prints and publications 50 50 20.000 1.000.000

Transportation 100.000

Lodgin

Feeding 200.000

Other services– Snacks 100 100 2.500 250.000

ASSETS ACQUISITION

Materials and Supplies 50 40 5.000 250.000

Other assets

OTHER COSTS

Motorcyle maintence 147.000

TOTAL 1.947.000

4.2 Financing and inversion sources :

Entity or Dependencty Prize

TOTAL 1.947.000

29
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