How can I improve the class interaction with my students in English?

Target group:

General objective:

Data collection:

-6th graders-11-12 years old-37 students

-SWBA to learn, practice and use Classroom expressions in order to increase the interaction with the teacher in the foreign language.

-Pre and post action research questionnaires

Specific objectives:-To develop the thinking in a foreign

language.-To show the importance of speaking English.-To use this functional language in a real context.-To avoid the use of the L1 in the EFL class.-To increase the confidence in my students.

Students love English in the school, they enjoy doing oral presentations about their interests, they like singing or playing games, however, they don’t use English to ask requests, ask for information or express their feelings using this foreign language.Hypothesis:Students don’t ask questions in the English class due to the fact that they feel shy to make mistakes in front to the class and also because they don’t have the habit of speaking in the foreign language naturally.

 ‘To be able to speak fluently in a foreign language requires a lot of practice. Speaking practice starts with practicing and drilling set phrases and repeating models. A great deal of time in language classrooms is often spent on these repetitive exercises.’(Ana Maria Pinter, Teaching Young Language Learners.2006)

Students in the school develop in the traditional teaching-learning process a lot of grammar exercises but only a little amount of practice developing real speaking interaction. There are many reasons to explain this situation: for instance, the quantity of students, the class time, the pressure to fulfill the syllabus among other things.

 Five Principles for Teaching BeginnersPrinciple 1: Focus on Meaningful and Relevant ContentThe main focus should be on language that the learners can use quickly for their purposes rather than on too much grammar explanation or on words that are not directly useful. (I. S. P. Nation and J. Newton, Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking. 2009)

Classroom expressions must be clear and simple for students. These new phrases must me a comprehensible input (Krashen, 1988). They also can be supported with visual help and a lot of repetition, practice and role playing.  Five Principles for Teaching Beginners Principle 4. Provide Plenty of Comprehensible InputTo ensure that input can be understood requires the use of visual aidsand contextual support for new language including pictures, gestures,mime, objects, and experiences out of class. Teachers also need to think carefully about the language they use in class with the aim of keeping their talk simple but not simplistic or ungrammatical.(I. S. P. Nation and J. Newton, Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking. 2009)

Planed actions:1. Apply a questionnaire to see if my students have problems speaking English June 2nd

15 minutes

2. Present the results of the survey to my students. June 3rd20 minutes

3. Present videos to my students in order to show them the importance of speaking English.

Teach them some useful Classroom language expressions. Create a Classroom Language bookmark

June 10th 90 minutes

4. Practice the phrases and create a video using them. June 17th45 minutes

5. Apply a new questionnaire to see if my students learned and used the new vocabulary.Watch the final video made by all the class.

June 23rd45 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqxyAZP9_ms

Class video project