Playful and dynamic strategies to foster oral participation and classroom management in 5th grade english classes with limited resources: a systematization of experiences.

Abstract

This working paper systematizes a pedagogical experience developed during teaching practicum in a 5th-grade primary school group within the framework of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction. The experience took place in a context marked by significant structural constraints: large class sizes of over thirty to thirty-two students, limited access to technological resources, and low levels of oral participation. To address these challenges, dynamic and playful strategies were progressively introduced, including movement-based activities, communicative games, handmade visual materials, and short oral interaction routines. The axis of this systematization is not to confirm that the strategies "worked," but to understand why and how oral participation and classroom management were transformed, and what pedagogical knowledge this process produced for the student teacher. The experience was systematized following the methodological framework proposed by Óscar Jara (2018), which articulates five key stages: the starting point, the initial questions, the recovery of the lived process, the in-depth reflections, and the points of arrival. Findings indicate that the implementation of these strategies had a positive impact on students' oral participation and contributed to an improved classroom environment. These findings draw on the pedagogical documents produced during the teaching practicum, including the needs analysis, lesson plans, reflective practicum journals, and teaching materials designed for classroom activities. These documents served as the main sources of information for reconstructing and critically interpreting the experience. It is concluded that dynamic and playful teaching strategies represent a viable and relevant alternative for fostering oral participation and classroom management in resource-limited EFL contexts, and that experience systematization is a valuable tool for the reflective professional development of foreign language teachers.