Task-Supported-Teaching to promote EFL Oral Fluency

Authors

  • Rigoberto Castillo District University of Bogotá image/svg+xml
  • Heidy Erika Silva-González Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Colombia
  • Leidy Sanabria-Chavarro Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Colombia , Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Colombia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.443

Keywords:

Conversation club, foreign language, oral production, Task-supported teaching, tutoring

Abstract

This paper presents a study that looked into the structuring of tasks that may foster oral fluency in an intensive eight-week course with 25 young adult and adult learners of English as a foreign language in a format of tutoring sessions for conversation. The action research involved two teachers and a research advisor, coauthors of this paper. Researchers identified two drawbacks: learners claimed that instruction was not helpful for them to use English outside the classroom and that they had difficulty in retaining information in long-term memory. With surveys, interviews, observations, and videos, the research team gathered data on students' progress, goals, performance and beliefs. The pedagogical intervention with Task-Supported Teaching (TST) produced these results: a) TST promoted cooperation b) the degree of participation correlated with the students’ purpose for learning English, and c) TST raised their awareness on the acquisition of speaking.

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Author Biographies

  • Rigoberto Castillo, District University of Bogotá

    holds a Ph.D in Education from The University of Texas at Austin. Fulbright alumnus and recipient of the National Award of ASOCOPI-TESOL.  Professor at Universidad Distrital and member of the research group Formación de Educadores. His duties include research courses, advising and mentoring undergraduate and doctoral students. He has written several books and articles. His 2014 book was nominated to the ELTons award in the U.K. and just completed a book on academic writing supported by ICT. He serves on the Advisory Committee for the Colombian Fulbright Commission and referee for the journals MEXTESOL, GIST. HOW, and LACLIL.

  • Heidy Erika Silva-González, Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Colombia

    has completed her B.A in TEFL at Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. She has been a Teacher assistant and participated in academic events. She works as an EFL teacher in a school located in Bogota, Colombia.

  • Leidy Sanabria-Chavarro, Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Colombia, Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Colombia

    is an English teacher who loves being a lesson plan developer and improving her students' language proficiency. Nowadays, she is working in a private school with teenagers and is involved in a new project that aims to make students increase their critical thinking and reading skills. She has studied an English bachelor at Distrital University.

References

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Published

2018-12-17

Issue

No. 17 (2018)

Section

Research Articles

How to Cite

Task-Supported-Teaching to promote EFL Oral Fluency. (2018). GIST – Education and Learning Research Journal, 17, 106-127. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.443