Developing speaking skills through communicative activities with 11th graders in a business english class

Abstract

This document describes a research project consisting of a pedagogical innovation carried out with a group of 11th graders at a vocational school in Chiquinquirá city, in Boyacá, Colombia, in response to a macro project requirement for the graduation in the B.A. in English Language Teaching at Santo Tomas University in Colombia, South America. Based on a needs analysis survey, which revealed the lack of practice regarding speaking skills, four types of communicative activities (Role-Plays, Role-Cards, Information Gaps, Simulations ) were taken into consideration for the implementation of (8) eight workshops aiming at the development of oral skills in a business English class, taking into consideration the main features and premises of the Speaking / Oral skills, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) along with English for Specific Purposes (ESP) as the main literary foundations of this query. The changes in the pedagogical practice, in the role of the teacher, in the syllabus design and in learners’ attitudes towards their learning process are also described in this paper. Audio videos and their corresponding transcriptions, observer´s checklists along with reflection journals provide the evidence of the improvement of students’ oral communication, as well as other implications and changes, necessary for a successful implementation of this action research project in the future, by either the author herself or any other practitioners of EFL in Colombia.