LITERACY PROJECT REPORT #2

PRESENTED BY:

JEAN CARLOS OTÁLORA CAVICHE

NIDIA PAOLA VILLALOBOS

PRESENTED TO:

M.A. JHON ALEXANDER YAGUARA

UNIVERSIDAD DE LA AMAZONIA

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING PROGRAM

EDUCATION SCIENCES FACULTY

DIDACTICS II

2019-II
 INTRODUCTION

The development of the literacy project has taken place after the application of the

diagnostic test in which we could identify that the participants were on a basic level. Until

the date, it has been carried out two classes at the hotel Royal Plaza. Furthermore, it is

important to mention that these sessions are based on both, the previous knowledge of the

students and the needs of their working field. The schedule for the classes was divided into

two face-to-face hours on Fridays and one virtual activity. During the development of this

report will be presented the method implemented, the process of this literacy project, the

outcomes, and some difficulties that have occurred during the foreign language teaching

process.
 APPROACH- METHOD

For the development of the English classes, we implemented two methods for the

design of the lesson plans. The methods used were the Content and Language Integrated

Learning (CLIL) and the Cooperative Learning. On the one hand, the cooperative learning

is one the most influential teaching methods, thus this could work with other trend methods.

Based on this, Pastor (2011) states that “the cooperative learning could enhance the results

in CLIL classrooms. It may help to overcome these shortcomings in the CLIL contexts” (p.

112). This was a meaningful approach regarding the environment since it provides the

students different ways to interact and help to each other. Moreover, Pastor (2011) points

out that “group working is essential and collaborative help is promoted” (p. 113). The fact

of not being a homogeneous population facilitates the exchange of knowledge. In this

sense, it supported the students’ learning process due to the cooperation between some

students with others who have at least some knowledge of basic structures and some

English expressions. All these features were evidenced in some activities that we carried

out in both classes where they had to identify the most common greetings in an audio. This

method was very significant since they worked as a group to reach a common goal and at

the same time everyone did his part, they complemented their ideas and everyone was

willing to help.

On the other hand, the CLIL method gives us different strategies and teaching tools

that support the integration and adjustment of learning that is directed at a given population

based on its needs and context. To this respect, Coyle et al. as cited in Lundin and Persson

(2015) state that it is a challenge to implement this method since there are diverse didactic
materials within. Furthermore, it requires well-prepared teachers for planning engaging

activities, this method is highly interactive which fosters the students’ cognitive

performance. This method has not been applied yet during our classes, but we are planning

to include it in future classes and we hope it can be meaningful for planning the activities

and for the class.

TEACHING PROCESS

Regarding the whole process of this literacy project, there are some points that we

want to highlight. First of all, it is important to mention that it has been quite challenging

because it is a new experience for us since we had not taught to adult people. For that

reason, before planning classes we have looked for different information in literature

review and research works that help us and support our teaching process. In this way, we

have acquired some knowledge about teaching to adults and this has been useful when we

have to prepare classes.

To illustrate this, we have put into practice the Knowles’ (1984) andragogical model

that has into consideration some aspects that a teacher should know when teaching to

adults. One of those essential aspects has to do with the assumption that adult people feel

motivated to learn something if they are aware that this new knowledge can be used

immediately in their context or working field. More precisely, he points out that “they are

ready to learn when they assume new social or life roles; they have a task-, or problem

centred orientation to learning, being willing to apply new learning immediately” (p. 1210).
 In this sense, our content has been directed to their jobs, we want to teach them the

way to communicate with foreign people at work and they can feel that learning English

was useful since they can use it for their own purposes and benefits. Until the date we have

had two classes of two hours, besides the participants have worked at home with some

basic homework that we have assigned them. The first class was on October 18th and the

second one was on October 25th.

In the first class, we were anxious and nervous because we did not how they will

react to our activities, we thought that maybe they won’t like them and they could be bored.

However, when we were with them we felt confident and they were so charming with us.

They showed commitment and were very enthusiastic to learn because they expressed that

English is a great need in the hotel where they work. In the first class we decided to

introduce the most basic vocabulary for them to use with foreign clients such us greetings

and check-in and check-out. In the second class we gave them the names of the places of

the hotel in English which were very useful for them since it is one of the things that

foreign clients are more likely to ask for.

Additionally, another important aspect of all this process that we want to mention is

that adult people are more attentive to the class, so we could do a contrast about teaching to

young learners and adult people. During the class, the participants were more engaged and

were interested to learn. We related this situation with the statement of Harmer (2007) who

affirms “that adult learners have greater cognitive capabilities and conceptual complexity

than the younger ones. This means that adults can offer a longer attention span, and they

can engage with abstract thought” (p. 81). Hence, it was easier for us to give the class and
made them feel motivated and confident, besides the fact of being just six people was a

great advantage to have a comfortable learning environment.

All in all, the project so far has been significant not only for the students who are

learning contextualized topics for their working field, but also for us as teachers. We are

facing a new challenge but at the same time we are gaining experience for future situations

which is something vital in our training process.

OUTCOMES

In relation to the outcomes of the literacy course so far, we have important aspects

that are worth mentioning. Despite the short time that we have had teaching English to the

workers of the hotel (two classes), they have had a good improvement in pronunciation of

the basic vocabulary we have provided them. At the beginning, some of the students did not

know how to pronounce the greetings or places of the hotel, or in some cases they knew

some words but they did it incorrectly. However, in both classes we evidenced a good

progress in terms of pronouncing and losing the fear to do it. The process of repetition was

without a doubt a key factor to make them get at least a clear understandable pronunciation.

Besides, thanks to the basic vocabulary they had learned, now they have expressed that if

they face a situation with a foreigner client they are capable to greet and give specific

directions related to places in the hotel. In the next classes, it is expected to teach them

more advanced vocabulary and that they can be able to communicate using more structured

sentences with foreign people.

DIFFICULTIES

In relation to the problems that we have had during the development of the project,

we can mainly mention three which have had negative effects on our classes. Firstly, it has
been difficult to meet with all the students since they have to fulfill their working hours

required. In this sense, the learning and teaching processes are affected because we have

many topics with different contents to teach and in this case, the time becomes a major

obstacle to achieve the objectives proposed. Secondly, teaching this population is a

complex task due to the lack of skills towards the foreign language. Finally, we got some

issues regarding the adequate teaching materials that facilitate the learning process.

Teaching at the hotel has some disadvantages and one of them is the lack of resources that

an official institution has like computers, board, and video beam, this is, without doubt, one

of the main issues presented in our teaching environment.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the two classes we have had with the participants of the project we can

conclude that this is going to be a long process to obtain enough outcomes. It is clear that

we are not going to have immediate positive results because they are adult people who

never were exposed to the English language. For that reason, it is quite difficult for them to

acquire a new language, and find the best learning styles for learning an unknown language.

Besides, having into consideration the analysis done in the two reports we can realize that

we are not going to go deeper on specific content, but the idea is to work to give them a

basic but enough English knowledge that they can use to enhance their working field. We

have high expectations in this last point, and we hope that our literacy project can have a

great impact and this could be reflected when the participants have the opportunity to be

exposed to the language within their jobs.

Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teacher (4th ed.). Harlow:

Longman.

Knowles, M. (1984). Andragogy in action. Applying modern principles of adult

education. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Lundin, C & Persson, L. (2015). Advantages and Challenges with CLIL: a study

examining teachers’ thoughts on learner engagement and confidence within content and

language integrated learning. p. 1-43. Retrieved from:

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a65c/11d9f5f97b774e55a072f6e578d544990b25.pdf

Pastor, M. (2011). CLIL AND COOPERATIVE LEARNING. Revista de Investigación e

Innovación en la clase de Idiomas. 20. 109-118. Retrieved from:

https://www.unifg.it/sites/default/files/allegatiparagrafo/17-12

2014/pastor_martinez_clil_and_cooperative_learning.pdf