Beyond the English language classroom: Out-of-school English language use by High School students in Uruguay

Abstract

I investigated the out-of-school resources in English that students use, the spaces of participation in English and the purposes of that participation. I was also interested in getting to knowing how the learners, their families and their friends perceived the English language and the culture associated with it because it could shed light on the question of why some students decide to use English on their own. Besides, I was searching for students’ opinions of how to better learn an L2 to offer other teachers some insights about effective teaching activities and methodologies.

Full text

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BEYOND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
OUT-OF-SCHOOL ENGLISH LANGUAGE USE BY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
INTRODUCTION
Gabbiani, B. (2012). “Formación Continua - (Co)construcción
Permanente. Creación de un Espacio para la Reflexión sobre la
Educación Lingüística”.En Brasil Irala y Silva (Orgs.)
Ensino na
área da linguagem. Perspectivas a partir da formação continuada
pp.35-58
.
Norton, B. (1995). Social Identity, Investment, and Language
Learning.
TESOL Quarterly Vol. 29 Nº 1pp 9-31.
Bibliography
Baffi Bonvino, M. (2010) Avaliação da Proficiência Oral em Inglês como
Língua Estrangeira: Foco na Competencia Lexical e uma Proposta para o
Processo de Validação do Descritor “Vocabulário” de um Teste de
Proficiência para Professores de Língua Inglesa. Tesis de Doctorado,
Universidad Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho”, Programa de
Doctorado en Estudios Lingüísticos, Área de especialización: Lingüística
Aplicada.
03 METHODOLOGY
02 OBJECTIVES
04 RESULTS
05 DISCUSSION
In Uruguay ESL is part
of the curriculum from
1st to 6th grade of
public Secondary
schools. At the end of
High School some
students show higher
levels of proficiency
which cannot be
explained by their
schooling histories.
This investigation
seeks to find out why
some learners (with
no prior
experience with
English private
lessons) outperform
others by researching
the students’ use of
English outside the
school.
GENERAL OBJECTIVE
To investigate ELL beyond the classroom of students from a public
High School in Uruguay.
•To register and classify the resources that the SS use beyond the classroom.
•To describe the purposes of these uses.
•To identify the SS’ perceptions of the L2 learning process and of L2 proficiency
•To categorize and describe the SS’ L2 learning modes.
01
The most common practice carried out by students beyond the classroom
is watching films and series, followed by watching videos.
Surprisingly, the students who get more involved in English-based
activities autonomously do not attend English private lessons.
More girls than boys get involved in out-of-class activities in all modes
except for online games.
Regarding good language learners (GLLs), they have a positive view of
the EL and a generally good opinion of E lessons at school. Their learning
communities (family and friends) also express an overall favourable
attitude to ELL.
For GLLs, being proficient in Eis related to the oral/aural aspects of the
language, none of them mentioned the reading or writing skills. Their
perception of their own proficiency is good in general, though two students
state they cannot communicate at all, probably because of their own
concept of proficiency.
According to them, differences in levels of proficiency are the result of
personal factors, particularly motivation and language aptitude. None of
the students mentions socio-cultural conditions or the learning context
(such as teaching methodologies, class size, etc.) as reasons for the
differences.
The most prevailing mode of learning of these GLLs is using out-of-class
resources (mainly online ones). They suggest alternative types of
evaluation, mainly orally based evaluation and projects; this may be the
result of their concept of proficiency.
Finally, they suggest alternative types of class work be included in the E
subject: drama and role plays, competitions, surveys, activities with
younger learners and more oral activities.
Author
MA TEFL Mariangel Carreño Rivas
Master student of Human Sciencies option Language, culture and
society. Fhuce-Udelar
mariangelcarrr@yahoo.com Mariangel Carreño
frahna karim 2014 © https://www.behance.net/karimfrahna
Participants: 5th-grade students from a public
High School in Uruguay (Aged 16 to 18)
A questionnaire (122 students)
Case study: 9 students considered as good
English language learners (GLLs) by their
teachers (not attending private lessons).
•Interviews with the teachers
•Facebook survey
•Learning logs
•Focus groups Videos 49%
No private lessons 60%
Private lessons 40%
Girls 65%
Boys 32%
N/I 4%
Online games 37%
No private lessons 71%
Private lessons 29%
Girls 31%
Boys 67%
N/I 2%
Most popular: GTA, Call of Duty, League of Legends,
FIFA
ACTIVITIES BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
Films/series 84%
W/subtltles 66%
No subtitles 4%
Both 14%
N/S 17%
No private lessons 69%
Private lessons 31%
Girls 62%
Boys 36%
N/I 2%
Talking 26%
No private lessons 56%
Private lessons 44%
Girls 57%
Boys 39%
Frequency:
Weekly 59%
Monthly 6%
Occasionally 25%
Other 9%
Interlocutor:
Family 41%
Friends 25%
Both 6%
Other 28%
Reading (blogs) 12%
No private lessons 40%
Private lessons 60%
Girls 60%
Boys 33%
N/I 7%
Most read: informative, sports,
famous people, fashion
Social networks 20%
No private lessons 68% Purpose: 1st Communication
Private lessons 32% 2nd Information
3rd Practice
CASE STUDIES
PERCEPTION of ELL ELL and PROFICIENCY MODES of LEARNING
SS’ perception of the E lang.
Families’ attitudes to ELL
Friends’ attitudes
to ELL
Attitudes towards
speaking English
Opinions about the
English lessons (not challenging enough)
at school
Benson, P. (2001). Teaching and researching autonomy in
language learning. London: Longman.
Benson, P. (2011). Language Learning and Teaching Beyond
the Classroom: An introduction to the field. In Beyond the
Classroom Language. Ed. P. Benson y H. Reinders. London:
Palgrave, MacMillan.
Norton, B. y Toohey, K. (2001).Changing Perspectives on Good Language
Learners. TESOL Quarterly Vol. 35 Nº 2 pp 307-322
Scaramucci, M. (2000). Proficiência em LE: Consideraciones terminológicas e
conceituais.
Trabalhos em Lingüística Aplicada, Vol. 36, pp 11-22
. Unicamp
http://revistas.iel.unicamp.br/index.php/tla/article/view/2500 Retrieved on
30th August 2016.
Image credits
www.flaticon.es
SS’ concept of proficiency (multiple answers) *
•Able to speak and listen
•Being fluent
•Having a good pronunciation
Self-perception of their own proficiency
•Positive
•Enough for the E subject
•Negative
SS’ opinions on proficiency variation *
Motivation
Lang. aptitude
Age
Intelligence
Time devoted
How SS learn English *
•Using resources
•Time investment
•Class work
• Don’t know
Preferred types of evaluation *
•Oral
•Writing tests
•Projects
•Debates
•Role plays
•Designing things
Suggested class activities
Drama and role plays - Competitions –Surveys -
Playing outside - Organizing activities for children
- More oral work