AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY: BENEFITS OF USING ACTIVE LEARNING STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES IN SPEAKING CLASSES

Yıl 2018, Cilt: 4 Sayı: 2, 13 - 26, 22.12.2018

Sanaz Moazzezini Fardi Maghenddam

Öz

This article presents
the findings of an action research study which aimed to find ways of
increasing the students’ level of participation in speaking lessons. An
eight-week action research study was conducted with 25
students during the speaking/listening sessions at the preparatory school of a foundation university
to find an answer to our puzzle. The instructional intervention in our action research cycle involved
the use of active
and animated speaking activities such as group-chatting, pair or group work,
practicing listening to native speakers in movies, group and whole class
discussions based on movies, preparing and making presentations in the class. The data of the study were collected through student diaries, teacher-researcher field note,
semi-structured interviews and an open-ended questionnaire. The findings of the
study indicated that the students work well together as a group and that
working in groups increase the students’ confidence in speaking and an increase
in self-confidence results in an increase in classroom participation in
speaking lessons. Involvement in an action research study has also increased
the researcher’s confidence to adopt and apply speaking activities to increase the
participation of the students in English lessons in the future.     

 

Keywords:  Teaching
speaking, active learning activities, communicative activities.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Teaching speaking, active learning activities

Kaynakça

• Bailey, K. (1983). ‘Competitiveness and anxiety in adult second language learning: looking at and through the diary studies’ in H. W. Seliger, & M. H. Long (Eds.), Classroom oriented research in second language acquisition (pp.67-102). Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House Publishers. Bonwell, C. and Eison, J. (1991). Active learning: Creating excitement in the classroom (ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 1). Washington, DC: George Washington University. Abstract online at http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed340272.ht Brown, H. (2000). principles of language learning and teaching. Longman.